Layoffs set to begin next month at Carrier plant Trump struck deal with: report

The Carrier plant in Indianapolis that President Trump convinced to stay open late last year will lay off more than 600 employees beginning next month, according to a new report Thursday.

CNBC reported that the deal struck by Trump before he assumed office isn’t working out as expected, and more than 600 employees will soon face layoffs.

Trump and Carrier reached an agreement in December to keep about 1,000 jobs at the Indiana plant. Both Carrier and Trump celebrated the agreement on Twitter.

We are pleased to have reached a deal with President-elect Trump & VP-elect Pence to keep close to 1,000 jobs in Indy. More details soon.

— Carrier (@Carrier) November 30, 2016

Big day on Thursday for Indiana and the great workers of that wonderful state.We will keep our companies and jobs in the U.S. Thanks Carrier

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2016

Trump also celebrated the agreement at the plant shortly after it was reached as an early victory of his agenda. 

{mosads}“I want to let all the other companies now that we are going to do great things for business. There’s no reason for them to leave anymore,” Trump said in December. “Their taxes are going to be at the low end and the unnecessary regulations are going to be gone.”

But CNBC reported that the fine print of the agreement indicates that only 730 of the 1,069 jobs that Trump’s deal “saved” are manufacturing jobs. The rest are engineering and technical jobs that were never set to be cut, according to the report.

In addition, the $16 million that the company promised to invest in the facility as part of Trump’s deal will go toward automation in the factory, which would ultimately result in fewer jobs.

Union officials told CNBC they’ve heard nothing from the company on potential relocation to other factories for the laid-off workers, only receiving a notice that the first round of cuts, totaling 338 jobs, will occur on July 20, with 290 more jobs being eliminated on Dec. 22.

The news follows an announcement last month that the layoffs would begin sometime this summer.