President Donald Trump went after a domestic manufacturer for moving jobs from Indiana to Mexico Sunday, vowing to levy a “big” tax on the company’s products made south of the border and sold in the U.S.
“Rexnord of Indiana made a deal during the Obama Administration to move to Mexico,” Trump tweeted. “Fired their employees. Tax product big that’s sold in U.S.”
The Milwaukee-based industrial bearings maker recently laid off 23 workers in preparation to transfer 350 jobs from a facility in Indianapolis to a new plant in Monterrey, Mexico.
Trump’s Twitter broadside was not the first time he has called out Rexnord by name for moving production jobs overseas. He blasted the company’s impending move to Monterrey in a Dec. 2 tweet: “Rexnord of Indiana is moving to Mexico and rather viciously firing all of its 300 workers. This is happening all over our country. No more!”
Rexnord has said that it will save about $30 million annually by moving its Indianapolis production facility to Mexico, where labor costs are much cheaper. The company pays Indiana workers about $25 an hour — in Mexico, it will pay about $3 an hour, the Indy Star reported.
The Trump administration has made keeping manufacturing jobs in the U.S. a crucial — and highly visible — aspect of its national economic policy. Even before he took office, then president-elect Trump personally intervened with Carrier Corp. to shelve plans to move jobs to Mexico. Carrier eventually agreed to keep about 1,100 of 1,400 jobs at an Indianapolis plant in exchange for $7 million in state and local tax breaks.
Rexnord is expected to close its Indianapolis plant in June.
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