Why Trump Resonates At A Midwest Factory

A meeting where an executive blandly tells employees at an Indiana Carrier air conditioning plant that their jobs are about to be outsourced to Mexico is captured on a worker’s cell phone video. Boos and catcalls erupt as the manager explains that it’s “strictly a business decision” and a done deal. Many of the workers at Indianapolis Carrier, which is a subsidiary of industrial giant United Technologies, apparently could care less about what Donald Trump  has to say about Muslims and immigrants, but, as one worker says, “If Trump will kick Carrier’s ass, then I’ll vote for him.” The article then moves on, first to an “investor day” meeting in New York, where the president of the climate, controls and security division of United Technologies explains the logic if the company’s relocation strategy, and then on to how relocation looks from the point of view of a one very upbeat Mexican worker at a Carrier plant already operating outside of Monterrey. Full time workers there make 330 pesos – about $19 – per day, which is less than what the Indianapolis workers are paid per hour.