Carrier reaches severance agreement with workers

July 28--Carrier Corp.'s 1,400 displaced employees will receive severance pay equal to one week for every year of service and six months of medical insurance, according to an agreement between the company and United Steelworkers Local 1999.

The agreement, which was released Wednesday, also allows employees to receive reimbursement for education and technical training. Additionally, it calls for an extension of the labor contract in place at Carrier.

"Carrier recognizes the impact on employees, their families and the community," company spokeswoman Michelle Caldwell wrote in a statement. "We appreciate their hard work and are pleased to have worked with the United Steelworkers to provide certainty through a comprehensive benefits package designed to help ease the transition."

Chuck Jones, president of United Steelworkers Local 1999, expressed displeasure with the severance package.

"We feel like the people deserve a whole hell of a lot more for what they put into the facility," he said. "They are losing their jobs through no fault of their own due to pure and simple corporate greed."

Kelly Hugunin, a business representative of the United Steelworkers, said the severance agreement is more favorable to the workers than what was originally codified in their union contract.

Carrier sent shock waves through Indiana when it announced in February that it would shutter its manufacturing operation and move it to Mexico. The move will be completed in three waves through 2019. It is part of a larger reorganization that also includes the closing of Huntington-based United Technologies Electronic Controls, which employs 700 people.

In total, 2,100 Hoosiers will lose their jobs in Indiana. Carrier and UTEC are both part of Hartford, Conn.-based United Technologies Corp.

Carrier has been in Indianapolis since the 1950s. Its impending closure is expected to wipe out an additional 1,300 related jobs across Indiana and cost the economy more than $100 million a year.

Carrier's workers, who perform low- to midgrade manufacturing jobs, are unlikely to find similar, high-paying positions. A quarter of the workers make about $14 an hour, or $30,000 a year. The rest, however, make about $26 an hour, or about $55,000, but earn well above $70,000 a year with overtime.

The Mexican workers replacing Carrier employees will earn a base wage of $3 an hour, which is $23 less than some of the top-paid employees in Indianapolis.

Call IndyStar reporter Kris Turner at (317) 444-6047. Follow him on Twitter: @krisnturner.

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