Bernie Sanders has made it clear that he would work with Donald Trump in the areas where American jobs were concerned. During Trump’s campaign, one of his main promises was to ensure that American companies would stay in the United States instead of going to Mexico. One of the companies singled out by Trump was United Technologies and their Carrier air conditioner units. On Saturday, Bernie Sanders made a statement on his personal website.
“During the campaign, Donald Trump made a 100 percent commitment to prevent United Technologies from shipping 2,100 jobs from Indiana to Mexico. All of us need to hold Mr. Trump accountable to make sure that he keeps this promise. Let’s be clear: it is not good enough to save some of these jobs. We cannot rest until United Technologies signs a firm contract to keep all of these good-paying jobs in Indiana without slashing the salaries or benefits workers have earned. I call on Mr. Trump to make it clear to the CEO of United Technologies that if his firm wants to receive another defense contract from the taxpayers of this country, it must not move these plants to Mexico.”
By mentioning withholding of defense contracts from being given to United Technologies, Bernie Sanders may have provided Donald Trump the ultimate Trump card that the incoming President could use in order to ensure Carrier stays put. The entire statement released by Bernie Sanders can be found here .
Reuters: Sanders to Trump: use defense contracts as leverage for Carrier jobs… #Bernie Sanders #USA https://t.co/jfU0ferVoh pic.twitter.com/ruJu92duE6
— Rankstr (@rankstr) November 27, 2016
Earlier this year, during the heart of the presidential election cycle, United Technologies went public with a statement in which they said that they planned on moving their Carrier air conditioner manufacturing plant to Mexico. This move to Mexico would allow United Technologies to make Carrier air conditioners at a cheaper rate that would ensure a higher profit for the company.
Donald Trump made it clear that if he were to become President of the United States, and United Technologies stayed firm to their plan of moving production of their Carrier air conditioners to Mexico, Trump would institute a tariff on all Carrier air conditioners coming into the United States from Mexico. This tariff would be high enough to negate the increased profit that United Technologies would have by paying less in labor by moving manufacturing to Mexico.
According to MSN , Donald Trump was “working hard, even on Thanksgiving” in order to ensure that production of Carrier air conditioners would remain being built in Indiana. The report went on to say that Trump was “making progress” on keeping Carrier air conditioners from going to Mexico.
Bernie Sanders urges Donald Trump to keep Carrier promise https://t.co/602OXyapj2 #Tech , #Technology , #News , #Indi … pic.twitter.com/NLkBf4zoTu
— CTS Indiana (@cts_indiana) November 27, 2016
United Technologies and their Carrier air conditioners are not the only company that Donald Trump threatened to tariff if they were to move manufacturing off of U.S. soil. Trump recognized early that in order to grow the economy at a rate of higher than three percent, the United States could not lose companies from the country.
Could Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump actually see eye to eye on any issue? When it comes to jobs, the answer appears to be yes. The report by MSN has also stated that Sanders will shortly propose a bill in which businesses in the United States that outsource their labor to foreign countries would lose their ability to receive any type of financial aid from the United States federal government. The bill that Sanders plans on proposing also would force a tax on companies that outsource their labor along with forcing these businesses to repay past tax breaks they have received.
Do you agree with Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump on how they plan on handling United Technologies and the Carrier wing of that company?
[Featured Image By Andrew Harnik/AP Images]
