Betraying Pro-Worker Facade, 'Vindictive' Trump Attacks Union Leader

After United Steelworkers Local 1999 president Chuck Jones revealed Wednesday that fewer jobs were remaining in Carrier’s Indianapolis plant than President-elect Donald Trump had promised, Trump launched into a Twitter tirade against the union leader.

In his tweets, the president-elect did not address his own apparently false statements about the job numbers but instead appeared to blame the union for the decision on the part of United Technologies, Carrier’s parent company, to move over 1,000 jobs to Mexico:

Jones said Wednesday that “Trump and [Vice President-elect Mike] Pence, they pulled a dog and pony show on the numbers,” when they announced the deal in which Trump promised United Technologies an enormous tax cut and regulatory favors in exchanging for preserving some jobs in Indiana.

Only 700 jobs will remain in Indiana, and not the “over 1,000” that Trump had promised. Jones also revealed that his union had not been involved in the job negotiations.

The Washington Post reports that after Trump’s tweets, Jones began receiving threatening phone calls from unknown numbers. The newspaper writes that “[h]alf 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.”

The Post continues: “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 [late Wednesday], ‘and leave me the hell alone.'”