Donald Trump to Labor Union: It's Your Fault Jobs Are Leaving

After President-elect Donald Trump held an adoring press conference last week bragging about saving more than 1,000 jobs in Indiana, the union leader of those very workers told The Washington Post that Trump was "lying his ass off" and that the actual number of jobs saved by generous federal tax subsidies would be lower.

The number of jobs saved, said the union president, was far less than Trump claimed. And the number of jobs still going to Mexico remains more than 500.

Trump, never one to let a real or perceived slight go unchecked, wielded one of those most powerful weapons he has access to (for now): Twitter.

"Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers. No wonder companies flee country!" Trump tweeted Wednesday night, calling out the union leader by name.

"If United Steelworkers 1999 was any good, they would have kept those jobs in Indiana. Spend more time working-less time talking. Reduce dues," Trump said in a follow-up tweet.

“He needs to worry about getting his Cabinet filled,” Jones said, “and leave me the hell alone.”

At issue here is exactly how many jobs Trump saved by agreeing to $7 million in tax subsidies for United Technologies, the parent company of Carrier, which is building a manufacturing plant in Mexico.

At his press conference, which received live, wall-to-wall coverage on cable news stations, Trump put the figure at 1,100. Jones said the actual number was 850 manufacturing jobs — Trump, he said, was counting 350 engineering jobs that were never going to leave — and that 550 union workers were still going to be laid off by the move to Mexico.

“He got up there,” Jones told the Post on Tuesday, “and, for whatever reason, lied his ass off.”

That apparently upset Trump, who went on his two-tweet tirade the next night. Jones, though, seemed to be unfazed by the president-elect calling him out by name.

"First of all, that means I’m doing, and we’re doing, as labor representatives, the best we can for the people to give them a living wage and good benefits," Jones told IndyStar. "No, what he says, that don’t bother me."

While Trump's campaign was heavy on saving blue-collar jobs that have been going overseas, Trump never articulated a clear position on unions and organized labor. The board of the AFL-CIO, the largest union group in the country, endorsed Hillary Clinton and called Trump's choice of Mike Pence the "second worst" vice- presidential pick in history for his anti-union stances.

Clinton received only 51 percent of the labor vote this election, down from the 58 percent that President Obama won over Mitt Romney and the 59 percent he captured over John McCain.

Trump's blame of the union may suggest he won't exactly be a best friend to organized labor while in office.

“This guy makes pennies for what he does,” Brett Voorhies, the president of the Indiana State AFL-CIO, said of Jones. “What he has to put up with is just crazy. Now he’s just got the president-elect smearing him on Twitter.”

Bernie Sanders, an outspoken supporter or labor unions, responded to Trump's tweet Thursday morning.

Image via Gage Skidmore, Flickr, used under Creative Commons