An Indiana manufacturer’s future move to Mexico — and the resulting loss of about 2,100 Hoosier jobs — is a hot topic among area businesses in the heating and cooling industry.
Some of those businesses told the Tribune-Star they may turn a cold shoulder to Carrier heating, air conditioning, ventilating and refrigeration equipment when bidding on future commercial and residential projects.
Carrier announced last week it plans to relocate its Huntington and Indianapolis manufacturing plants to Monterrey, Mexico, during the next three years. The move will mean the loss of about 2,100 jobs for Hoosiers.
“I am going to advertise that we deal in Lennox, and it is an American-made company and Carrier is not,” said Ethan Rayburn, vice president and general manager of Paitson Bros. Heating & Air Conditioning in Terre Haute. “I am going to bring that up when I deal with customers, that we deal with an American-made product.”
Lennox has manufacturing plants in Iowa and Arkansas and is headquartered in Texas.
Rayburn said that Paitson Bros. has used Carrier equipment in commercial accounts in the past when the customer requested it.
“It’s nice to be able to tell a customer that this is an American-made product, or and Indiana-made product,” he said.
Sally Stewart of B&S Plumbing Heating and Cooling said the Carrier announcement has been buzzing around the industry, and has caused some concern.
Stewart said that the family-owned business does not plan to sell Carrier systems in the future.
“Not if we can help it,” she said. “Unfortunately, some owners want those units in their specifications. But, owners need to tell their design engineers not to specify Carrier. A lot of time, the specs have choices of other brands, too.”
Another longtime HVAC businessman who left that industry about three years go, said he took notice of the Carrier announcement and thinks the move to Mexico will hurt the company’s public image.
“If they move to Mexico, personally, I think a lot of people are going to be against them,” said Champ Coughlin, who now operates Coughlin Auto Gallery. “They are not changing their prices, not bringing their prices down, even though they are moving south of the border to save money on wages.”
A union representative stated last week that the Indianapolis workers make about $20 an hour on average compared to the $3 an hour Carrier would pay Mexican workers.
Coughlin said that while customers considering an HVAC purchase might decide to avoid Carrier because of the manufacturing export to Mexico, the company also makes other well-known brands such as Heil and TempStar, due to the acquisition of Inter-City Products a few years ago.
Some other HVAC businesses contacted by the Tribune-Star on Thursday declined to comment about the Carrier move.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of Indiana elected officials has sent a letter to United Technologies, the parent company of Carrier and UTEC, urging the company to continue operations in Indiana.
U.S. Sens. Joe Donnelly and Dan Coats, Gov. Mike Pence, and Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett were among officials requesting a meeting with United Technologies.
The letter stated, “While we struggle to understand the basis of your business decision, we continue to believe that when we work together we can solve most problems. We understand that you are meeting with union officials to discuss the decision to move your operations to Mexico. We ask that Carrier, UTEC, and United Technologies also meet with our offices to discuss this issue, and hope that you come to the table in good faith and work to find a solution to continue this partnership that has brought success to your company and strengthened our communities.”
Carrier and UTEC are part of United Technologies Corp., which reported more than $6 billion in earnings in 2014, and ranks as the 45th-largest U.S. corporation according to Fortune.
Donnelly, who met with the Tribune-Star editorial board on Wednesday,also has highlighted a $5.1 million federal tax credit that Carrier received from the Department of Energy in 2014 based upon the expectation that Carrier would use the credits to create jobs in America. Donnelly has asked the company to reimburse that tax credit to taxpayers.