PERU, Indiana (Reuters) – Donald Trump won the presidency of the United States four years ago, partly because of a promise to workers in the Midwest that he would prevent companies like Schneider Electric SE from transferring jobs abroad.
He didn’t stop them.
Schneider’s factory, which produced electrical equipment near the center of this tiny city north of Indianapolis, closed in April, eliminating 306 jobs. Regina McDowell, who worked there for 42 years and said it was the only job she had besides a teenage nanny, said she went through “a little depression” when it closed.
President Trump did not send any furious tweets on behalf of factory workers or responded to workers who sought the White House for help, said McDowell, who remains secretary-treasurer for the union representing Schneider workers and several other small factories in Peru. Some workers were hopeful that Trump could speak out, as he did on behalf of workers at a Carrier Corp. plant. nearby during the 2016 election campaign.
There were also no public demonstrations of support offered by Mike Pence, who as governor of Indiana and vice president-elect negotiated with Carrier to modify his plans, including a meeting with the CEO of Carrier’s parent company at Trump Tower in New York in end of november 2016
Despite Washington’s silence, McDowell said that most of his co-workers enthusiastically supported Trump in the 2020 election. “They blamed the company, not him.”
Peru is just one example of how offshoring has progressed, even under a president who has promised to stop him. While complete data are not available to identify all jobs in the US lost to offshoring, the Department of Labor tracks cases where workers ask for help under a federal law designed to help those affected by trade.
During the four years of the Trump administration, this program certified 2,095 petitions covering 202,151 workers who lost jobs who moved abroad. This is just slightly less than the 2,170 petitions passed during the Obama administration’s last four years, which covered 209,735 workers.
“The challenge for the United States remains the scarcity of skilled workers and higher costs – that hasn’t changed,” said Patrick Van den Bossche, a Kearney partner who tracks how companies are changing their production footprints.
Venancio Figueroa, a spokesman for Schneider, said that closing the factory was a “difficult” decision, “but we considered it necessary for us to remain competitive in the markets we serve”.
“We have not received any questions from the Trump administration” or the Indiana state government, he added. There were investigations by the local government and the county, which sought to reverse the decision, he said.
Schneider, a French conglomerate, countered the view that he was restricting his commitment to US production, noting that he had committed to spending $ 40 million to modernize factories in Kentucky, Iowa, Nebraska and Texas.
RASPUTIN’S DAUGHTER
The loss of the plant was a blow to Peru, with 11,500 inhabitants, which was once known as the winter home of several important circuses. Maria Rasputin, daughter of the famous Russian monk Grigori Rasputin, was attacked by a bear in Peru while working for a circus there. She survived. The only traces of this history are a large circus museum and a summer festival and circus parade.
Schneider was by far the largest industrial employer, although it has declined in recent years. The factory manufactured panels and circuit breaker cabinets that are used to shield electrical equipment.
The factory is now empty. Most of its former owner’s signage has been removed, although small signs remain at the gates of a huge parking lot and a Schneider electric car charging station is close to the front door of the factory’s offices.
The factory transferred part of its production to Monterrey, Mexico, as well as to non-union operations in South Carolina and Texas.
“The goal was to leave the union,” says Eli Ireland, who has worked at the factory for 22 years. The company called this view “inaccurate”.
In fact, the union representing the workers, the International Association of Engineers and Aerospace Workers, maintained a count of the factories it represented and closed during Trump’s term. They recorded more than 50, including Peru. Not all were cases in which the work was outsourced directly abroad. But many of them are, according to the union.
“We did this because the government said we would return jobs and prevent factories from closing, so we collected this data,” said Jonathan Battaglia, a union spokesman.
The good news for workers in Peru was that many of them found jobs quickly. When the factory closed, the pandemic had not yet reached the United States and employers were hungry for workers. Ireland, for example, quickly started working for a state agency that works with veterans. McDowell, 62, said he decided to take a break, but will soon start community college courses with the help of trade adjustment funds. She hopes to start her own nonprofit organization to work with single parents on housing and other issues.
One aspect of the factory closure that McDowell still struggles with is that it coincided with a bitter election and the COVID-19 pandemic. McDowell, who is black, said many of her friends, some of whom she has known for 30 years, have stopped socializing with her as the campaign heated up and her anti-Trump views clashed with more widespread loyal support among colleagues. of work.
“It’s weird. Sometimes I see them outside and we usually talk because we knew each other,” she said. “But these are people I used to do things with outside of work. I hope that when things calm down and Covid is over, we can get in. in touch again. ”
Reporting by Timothy Aeppel; edition of Dan Burns and Edward Tobin