[CTC] Trump Launches Tweet Attack on Carrier Steel Union Leader for Fact-Checking Him

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Please use the hashtag #ImWithChuck to stand with Chuck Jones and the Steelworkers.  Couple examples to RT:

https://twitter.com/steelworkers/status/806697884154556416
https://twitter.com/citizenstrade/status/806813099609255937




http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-unable-ignore-critics-baselessly-attacks-carrier-union-boss-n693406


Trump Launches Tweet Attack on Carrier Steel Union Boss for Fact-Checking Him
by PHIL MCCAUSLAND

President-elect Donald Trump pledged to be "so presidential you will be bored" during the election, but he continues to keep Americans on their toes after again taking to Twitter to battle his most recent critic. 

Chuck Jones, president of United Steelworkers 1999, told NBC News that he had been harassed and threatened in the wake of Trump's latest attack — a broadside against Jones leadership of union workers at a Carrier manufacturing plant in Indiana that took center stage last week. 

Jones has not been shy about telling publications that Trump broke his promise to save jobs at the Carrier plant, a pledge on which the president-elect campaigned. 

Trump recently proclaimed that he helped save about 1,1000 jobs at the plant that were slated to be moved to Mexico, which is untrue. Instead, the deal saves closer to 800 positions, according to Jones. Carrier's parent company gets $7 million in tax cuts and incentives over 10 years. 

Jones said Trump tried to take credit for 350 research and development jobs that were already planned to remain in Indiana. 

Trump did not address the reasons for the feud directly, but instead stated via a tweet that Jones had done a "terrible job" and suggested that he was the reason companies were leaving the country. 


The national union responded not long after, calling Jones a "hero" who'd tried to save all of the imperiled jobs. 


More than an hour later, Trump returned to Twitter to say the lost jobs were the fault of the local union. Trump said the union should "spend more time working-less time talking. Reduce dues." 


The union replied that members' dues were used to save jobs. 


The argument started 20 minutes after Jones appeared on CNN and said 550 jobs were still heading for Mexico from Carrier's Indianapolis facility, while 700 jobs from its Huntington facility <http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/plant-workers-still-losing-their-jobs-tell-trump-don-t-n690981> would also be sent to Mexico. 

Jones later told NBC News: "I tried to correct some of his math, and he took exception to it." 

"For him to say I'm a horrible labor leader, I take it as a positive, because that must mean that we're doing something so people can earn a decent living wage-wise and benefit-wise," Jones added. 

Jones said some of Trump's passionate Twitter followers are now harassing him. 

"I'm getting threats and everything else from some of his supporters," Jones said. "I'm getting them all day long — now they're kicked up a notch." 


Since winning the election, Trump has used the social media platform to criticize China, Boeing, the cast of "Hamilton," the news media in general, the Green Party and its presidential nominee, Jill Stein, "Saturday Night Live," Cuba, protesters and more. 

He also tweeted that cases of voter fraud caused him to lose the popular vote, a claim for which there is no evidence. 


On Twitter, Trump also took credit for saving a Ford plant that was never slated to close. 


The president-elect's transition team has not apologized or produced any corrections. 


=====

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/12/07/donald-trump-retaliated-against-a-union-leader-on-twitter-then-his-phone-started-to-ring/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_wb-trumpunion-1035pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.623a74f6c4d4

Donald Trump insulted a union leader on Twitter. Then the phone started to ring.

Chuck Jones uses a flip phone, so he didn’t see the tweet. His friend of 36 years called him Wednesday night and said: The president-elect is smearing you on Twitter.





Jones, a union leader in Indianapolis, represents the Carrier workers whose jobs <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/12/06/he-got-up-there-and-lied-his-a-off-carrier-union-leader-on-trumps-big-deal/> Donald Trump has pledged to save. He said the sudden attention from the country’s next leader didn’t feel real.

“My first thought was, ‘Well, that’s not very nice,’ ” he told The Washington Post on Wednesday night. “Then, 'Well, I might not sleep much tonight.' "

Jones, president of the United Steelworkers Local 1999, told The Post on Tuesday that he believed Trump had lied to the Carrier workers last week when he visited the Indianapolis plant. On a makeshift stage in a conference room, Trump had applauded United Technologies, Carrier’s parent company, for cutting a deal with him and agreeing to keep 1,100 jobs that were slated to move to Mexico in America’s heartland.

Jones said Trump got that figure wrong.

Fact-checking Trump's misleading numbers about the Carrier deal Play Video1:19
The Post's Fact Checker took a closer look at the claims President-elect Donald Trump made during a speech in Indiana on Dec. 1, about the deal to keep jobs at a Carrier plant there that were due to be shipped to Mexico. (Video: Jenny Starrs/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Carrier, he said, had agreed to preserve 800 production jobs in Indiana. (Carrier confirmed that number.) The union leader said Trump appeared to be taking credit for rescuing 350 engineering positions that were never scheduled to leave. Five hundred fifty of his members, he said, were still losing their jobs. And the company was still collecting millions of dollars in tax breaks.

In return for downsizing its move south of the border, United Technologies would receive $7 million in tax credits from Indiana, to be paid in $700,000 installments each year for 10 years. Carrier, on top of that, has agreed to invest $16 million in its Indiana operation. United Technologies, meanwhile, still plans to shuttle 700 factory jobs from Huntington, Ind., to Monterrey, Mexico.

Jones, who said the union wasn't involved in the negotiations, said he's working to lift his members' spirits. He said he didn't have time to worry about Trump.

“He needs to worry about getting his Cabinet filled,” he said, “and leave me the hell alone.”

Representatives for Trump did not respond to The Post's requests for comment.


Over the past two decades, the United States has lost about 4.5 million manufacturing jobs, a consequence economists ascribe to trade and automation. Jones said he has fought to keep work on U.S. soil, bargaining repeatedly with Carrier and Rexnord <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/29/trump-just-scored-perhaps-the-biggest-victory-of-his-new-tenure-but-it-comes-with-a-huge-asterisk/?utm_term=.def17f1233ac>, another Indianapolis plant that plans to relocate jobs to Mexico.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence tweeted his support for Jones earlier this year:



Half an hour after Trump tweeted about Jones on Wednesday, the union leader's phone began to ring and kept ringing, he said. One voice asked: What kind of car do you drive? Another said: We’re coming for you.

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He wasn’t sure how these people found his number. 

“Nothing that says they’re gonna kill me, but, you know, you better keep your eye on your kids,” Jones said later on MSNBC. “We know what car you drive. Things along those lines.”

“I’ve been doing this job for 30 years, and I’ve heard everything from people who want to burn my house down or shoot me,” he added. “So I take it with a grain of salt and I don’t put a lot of faith in that, and I’m not concerned about it and I’m not getting anybody involved. I can deal with people that make stupid statements and move on.”

Brett Voorhies, president of the Indiana State AFL-CIO, called Jones after Trump’s tweet caught his eye. Jones, he said, had just left his office in Indianapolis, where he manages the needs of about 3,000 union members.

“This guy makes pennies for what he does,” Voorhies said. “What he has to put up with is just crazy. Now he’s just got the president-elect smearing him on Twitter.”







Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826




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