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Trump’s Job-Growth Claims at GM, Wal-Mart Don’t Stack Up

by Rick Clough 18January,2017, 9:00 pm AEDT

Some claims of adding workers predated November’s election

Large companies have announced total of more than 200,000 jobs

[VIDEO:] GM Investing $1B in U.S., Announces 7,000 Jobs

President-elect Donald Trump has made job creation one of his signature issues, setting off a flurry of corporate pledges to hire more workers. But not every job-growth announcement stacks up.

For many companies, including General Motors Co. .. https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/GM:US .. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., new promises to add jobs are repackaged versions of plans that were already in place before the election. They would have been carried out regardless of who’s living in the White House, analysts say.

Wal-Mart, for instance, touted a plan to open almost 60 stores that it had previously announced. That won the retail giant -- the nation’s largest private employer -- a thumbs-up from Trump, who tweeted that the company was helping start “the big jobs push back into the U.S.!”

In all, companies such as Wal-Mart, Amazon.com Inc. and Sprint Corp. have announced a total of more than 200,000 “new” jobs since the election. But less than half appear to be the real deal. And even if Trump was responsible for all of them, that would amount to relatively little for the U.S. overall -- about 0.1 percent of the nation’s 145 million employees.

Still, some executives aren’t bothered if Trump wants to take credit.

“Not at all,” said Sergio Marchionne, chief executive officer of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, which this month announced the addition of 2,000 jobs -- under a contract negotiated in 2015. “I share his enthusiasm about the commitment that he’s making to this country.”

[list with yep/nope re Trump saved or not]

Trump .. Date .. Company .. Jobs .. Credit to Trump? .. Reality
Jan. 17, 2017 General Motors 7,000 Nope GM’s $1 billion U.S. investment plan includes retaining some jobs that already exist, and the total plan is less than last year’s $2.9 billion program.

Jan. 17, 2017 Wal-Mart 10,000 Nope A $6.8 billion U.S. spending plan was already announced, though the jobs total -- 10,000 retail positions -- wasn’t specified.

Jan. 17, 2017 Bayer 3,000 Yep Following a meeting with Trump, Bayer pledged $8 billion in U.S. investment and new jobs at Monsanto Co. should a planned merger win approval.

Jan. 13, 2017 Lockheed Martin 1,800 Yep CEO Marillyn Hewson pledged new jobs at a Texas plant where the F-35 fighter jet is assembled.

Jan. 12, 2017 Amazon.com 100,000 Probably not Amazon already had an aggressive growth plan and was hiring more than 6,000 people globally each month in 2015.

Jan. 8, 2017 Fiat Chrysler 2,000 Nope The company said the jobs were a product of ongoing talks with the UAW.

Jan. 3, 2017 Ford 700 Yep Ford will invest $700 million in Michigan plant, creating the new jobs, which CEO Mark Fields called a “vote of confidence” in Trump.

Dec. 28, 2016 Sprint 5,000 Nope The jobs being created or brought back are part of parent SoftBank’s previously announced 50,000 jobs.

Dec. 13, 2016 IBM 25,000 Nope IBM said the plan was under way well before the election.

Dec. 6, 2016 SoftBank 50,000 Probably not SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son’s pledge to create the jobs under a $50 billion investment will come from a previously announced $100 billion fund.

Dec. 1, 2016 Carrier 1,100 Yes, but... Carrier will keep about 700-800 jobs that had been slated to move to Mexico, but 300 were never going to go. More than 1,000 jobs will still move.

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-01-22/trump-mocks-protests-in-first-remark-on-worldwide-demonstrations

==

I’m the union leader Donald Trump attacked. I’m tired of being lied to about our jobs.

Trump swore he'd save our jobs. He didn't.

By Chuck Jones December 8, 2016

Play Video 4:12 Chuck Jones: Threats spurred by Trump's tweets 'don't faze me'

I’m a union leader in Indianapolis. I represent the Carrier workers whose jobs Donald Trump has pledged to save. And I’m tired of being lied to.

In February, corporate officials came to our plant and announced that they were closing the facility. They would move 1,300 jobs to a plant in Mexico. (Three hundred and fifty positions would remain in Indianapolis, mostly filled by research and development staff.)

Over the next several months, my team and I worked tirelessly to keep Carrier in our city. We came up with $23 million in savings, but the Carrier brass said that wasn’t enough. They could save $65 million by moving to Mexico. We couldn’t match that unless we were willing to cut wages to $5/hour and cut all benefits.

So we started to negotiate a severance package instead — one week of pay for every year of service, a $2,500 lump sum for every employee and free health care for six months.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, Trump got involved ..

I am working hard, even on Thanksgiving, trying to get Carrier A.C. Company to stay in the U.S. (Indiana). MAKING PROGRESS - Will know soon!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2016

. He sat down with Carrier leaders. Afterward, he announced that 1,100 jobs would be saved. When I first heard the news, I was optimistic. But I began to get nervous when we couldn’t get any details on the deal. I urged caution, but our members got their hopes up. They thought their jobs had been saved.

When I met with Carrier officials last Thursday, I realized that that wouldn’t be the case. Though Trump said he’d saved 1,100 jobs .. http://time.com/4588349/donald-trump-carrier-jobs-speech/ , he hadn’t. Carrier told us that 550 people would get laid off.

Trump didn’t tell people that, though. When he spoke at our plant, he acted like no one was going to lose their job. People went crazy for him. They thought, because of Trump, I’m going to be able to provide for my family.

All the while, I’m sitting there, thinking that’s not what the damn numbers say. Trump let people believe that they were going to have a livelihood in that facility. He let people breathe easy. When I told our members the next day, they were devastated.

I was angry, too....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/12/08/im-the-union-leader-donald-trump-attacked-im-tired-of-being-lied-to-about-our-jobs/?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.33aee8188af9

That article is linked in the WAPO tiny here

He ‘lied his a– off': Carrier union leader on Trump’s big deal
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=127056827