INDIANAPOLIS -- Frank Staples has worked at Carrier for 11 years. He was planning on retiring from the company until they announced they were relocating his job.
“I come out of high school, very little college education and was looking forward to retire from there and then maybe someday, maybe my kids working there – it’s not going to happen now," he said.
He was one of many Carrier employees who made their presence -- and their frustrations -- known at the Statehouse this week.
MORE | Union members converge on Statehouse to protest Carrier move
“Upset. Other words that I don’t want to use, but just frustration, you know we go in there daily, bust our hump, make a quality product, ship it out in a timely manner," he said, "We couldn’t get any faith from the company. I mean we made the company what it is, they made $7.1 billion dollars in profit, $66 billion in sales, I mean – why you moving? Greed.”
About 400 members of the United Steelworkers Union District 7 traveled to Indianapolis from all over the state Tuesday morning to march to the Statehouse to voice their opposition to the Carrier move to Monterrey, Mexico.
On Wednesday, several Carrier employees stood outside as Gov. Pence met with United Technologies Corp. Climate, Controls and Security President Robert McDonough. A few employees, including Staples, were invited in to talk to the governor after the meeting.
“I told him that we’re not going away quietly. We didn’t pick this fight, we had a good quality workforce, that plant has been there since the 1950s, not no point in time were they not profitable, it’s just corporate creed. So if they think we’re walking away quietly, they’re wrong," Chuck Jones, the president of United Steelworkers Local 1999 said.
FULL COVERAGE | Carrier employees protest move at statehouse| Moving to Mexico: What you need to know about Monterrey, Mexico| Moving to Mexico: On the ground in Monterrey, Mexico, where Carrier is movingTrump weights in on Carrier relocation to Mexico | Carrier: Company did not receive $5M in federal stimulus funds | President of United Steelworkers Union: No hope of saving 1,400 jobs | Carrier employees, local businesses reel after announcement of move to Mexico |WATCH: Employees react to news that Carrier is moving from Indy to Mexico | Pence to review Carrier's plans to move to Mexico |TRUMP: Carrier should be taxed for their goods after move to Mexico | Hogsett, Donnelly meet with Carrier workers | City, state stepping in to help Carrier employees |Indiana leaders ask Carrier for a meeting to try to keep the plant, jobs in the state
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