INDIANAPOLIS — More than 300 Carrier Corp. workers were being laid off Thursday from the company’s Indianapolis factory as part of an outsourcing of jobs to Mexico that drew criticism last year from then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.

The nearly 340 workers clocked out after their final shifts at Carrier’s gas furnace factory. Another wave of 290 workers will be let go by Dec. 22 under a timetable the company announced in May.

Carrier said in February 2016 that it would close the Indianapolis plant and cut about 1,400 production jobs in a decision expected to save $65 million annually by moving furnace production to Mexico.

Trump repeatedly criticized the outsourcing plan. Weeks after he won the election, Carrier announced an agreement brokered by the president-elect to spare about 800 jobs in Indianapolis, but about 600 jobs are still being eliminated. The agreement included $7 million in state tax breaks and grants over 10 years to the company, some of which will be invested in automation that will ultimately mean fewer jobs at the factory.

Although Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have been credited with saving Carrier’s Indianapolis factory, employees don’t have a sense of much job security, said Robert James, president of United Steel Workers Local 1999, which represents plant workers.

“They just don’t have any faith in this plant staying in Indianapolis,” he told The Indianapolis Star. “There’s just too much uncertainty.”


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