A short-lived victory?

Stephen Green links to a story at The Blaze by Sara Gonzales in which the CEO of Carrier admits that Carrier plans to automate their Indiana plant.

CEO of Carrier’s parent company United Technologies, Greg Hayes, confirmed to CNBC this week that it would ultimately mean fewer jobs available at the facility.

“We’re going to…automate to drive the cost down so that we can continue to be competitive,” Hayes said.

“Is it as cheap as moving to Mexico with lower cost labor? No. But we will make that plant competitive just because we’ll make the capital investments there. But what that ultimately means is there will be fewer jobs.”

In lieu of moving to Mexico, Carrier decided to stay in the United States and save 800 out of 1,400 jobs at the plant, in the short-term future. Carrier would not comment on how many of the 800 remaining jobs would be replaced by automation, or when that would happen.

Read more here.