Carrier delays, reduces upcoming Indianapolis layoffs

Carrier Corp. says it's delaying an upcoming round of layoffs at its Indianapolis gas furnace factory and reducing its size as it prepares to move some production to Mexico.

Carrier said Tuesday the layoffs originally planned for Dec. 22 will now occur Jan. 11 and affect only 215 workers, not the 275 it had last estimated.

Carrier said in a statement it reduced the number of layoffs because of attrition. Many workers already have left the company, reducing the need for additional cuts.

Nearly 340 Carrier workers in Indianapolis lost their jobs July 20 in the first of two phases of layoffs expected to eliminate more than 600 local jobs. The Dec. 22 layoffs represented the second phase.

Carrier originally planned to shift all of its Indianapolis production work to Mexico. That February 2016 announcement made big waves in the U.S. presidential campaign.

The move would have eliminated 1,400 positions locally, although Carrier wouldn’t have left Indianapolis completely. The company has another 270 research and headquarters positions in Indianapolis that were always slated to remain.

Based on that initial announcement, state and city officials clawed back a combined $1.6 million in previously awarded incentives for the company.

In late November 2016, Carrier announced it had partially reversed course and would keep some production in Indianapolis after all. The reversal came after President-elect Donald Trump contacted Carrier and asked it to reconsider its plans.

Trump visited the plant in December to celebrate the company's change of heart.

In March, the Indiana Economic Development Corp. approved a new package of Carrier incentives worth up to $7 million.

The package includes up to $1 million in tax credits if Carrier invests $16 million in its Indianapolis facility, as well as a training grant of up to $1 million.

The remaining $5 million is in the form of a rarely used incentive—a tax credit for companies that pledge to retain existing jobs rather than create new ones.

In order to receive the full retention credit, Carrier must retain 1,069 jobs in Indianapolis for the next 12 years. That number includes 800 positions associated with gas furnace manufacturing, plus the 269 research and headquarters jobs.