Rexnord signs severance agreement

300 workers at Indy plant hope Trump will save jobs

Indianapolis — Although recent attention has been on the Carrier deal that will keep some Indianapolis jobs from going to Mexico, employees at the Rexnord Corp. plant here are hoping for a Carrier-type intervention from President-elect Donald Trump.

Milwaukee-based Rexnord Corp.’s 300 Indianapolis workers reached a severance agreement with the company Thursday.

Rexnord will pay its soon-to-be displaced Indianapolis manufacturing workers $2,000, plus one week of salary for every year they spent at the company, according to United Steelworkers Local 1999. Rexnord also will provide free health insurance for six months. Each worker will receive $500 this month and an additional $1,500 if they remain on the job until the company ends their employment.

The agreement is similar to the one United Technologies Corp. negotiated with the 2,100 employees that it planned to lay off in Indiana. That number has been reduced by up to 800 employees since the company reached a deal with Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence to continue making furnaces at its Carrier plant.

The biggest difference between the two severance packages is that United Technologies workers will receive $2,500 payments instead of $2,000.

United Steelworkers Local 1999 represents union workers at both companies.

Chuck Jones, president of the union, said Rexnord employees aren’t giving up hope that their jobs can be saved. Jones has publicly challenged Trump to intervene in Rexnord’s plan like he did with Carrier. Jones’ criticism of Trump provoked the president-elect to insult Jones on Twitter, saying Jones has done “a terrible job representing workers.”

But Trump also has targeted Rexnord on Twitter, saying earlier this month that the company is “rather viciously firing all of its 300 workers.” Trump added, “No more!” That gave workers some hope that Trump might contact Rexnord.

“I’ve reached out to him numerous times through the media and said if he’s