OK, the Donald went to bat for the Carrier workers, and good for all. We can probably expect more of this as managements rebalance balance all of their stakeholder interests.
We had sent a tersely worded text to our buddies at Ford to get their heads out of their nether regions, which Bill Ford finally did, by negotiating a deal with Donald to move production around so he could get his small car plant in Mexico. Sounded like a win/win.
There were good reasons for Carrier management to cave, not all of them related to the issue at hand.
First, Carrier is a division of United Technologies, which has a lot of government contracts. We think that Sikorsky helicopter is one of the divisions, and they’ve got a contract, we believe, to replace the UH-53 family of helos, and apparently not a minute too soon. Mad Dog Mattis, as a retired Marine general, will probably handle this one personally as SecDef.
Second, and most important, corporate taxes are coming down from 35% stated rate to 14%, stated rate. There’s a lot more at stake with this that the wages of 1100 workers.
The tax cut is really the big enchilada, and Trump will deliver on it. It’s a major rebalancing of labor, capital and shareholders.
Third, it’s not known, how much technology Carrier could put in the production of gas furnaces (the subject of the dispute) to offset the labor increases. That Indiana would give them a $7MM grant probably speaks to the tech improvements that could be made. But, one wonders why Carrier management didn’t make them without the grant.
So, you CEOs and owners, get your big boy pants on, and buckle up; its gonna be an interesting ride with the Donald at the controls. It’s the second coming of Teddy Roosevelt.