I just came back in to see she-who-must-be-obeyed, sitting on the couch, watching MS-NBC's coverage of the new soon to be liar-in-chief (Orange Julius) pontificating on his second stop of the Small Hands Tour. (Special thanks to Trevor Noah. I think, for the title) He went on ad nauseum of the greatness and wonderfulness and such of Carrier and United Technologies. Never mind how much the words I, or me, or my, were used, this was about a “Great Deal”. Other than the fact that every other word out of his pie hole was a lie, it was a great performance of the art of flim flam. Never during his greatness’ meanderings did he discuss the details of the “deal”.
I had to leave the room. Hopefully our news folk will start calling a liar a LIAR rather than sugar coating the fact with some other sweet euphemism.
Thanks for putting up with my rant. SHMBO won’t.
Let me give you a little historical background regarding my past dealings with United Technologies and Carrier in particular. Let me be clear, up front, that I like their products. Up until my retirement 4 years ago, I was a Construction Manager. Then I retired. During the last decade and a half, I managed residential sound insulation programs for airports across the country. The following is a ruling that related to that type of work, as it was funded by the FAA:
“Based on FAA requirements, unless prior written approval is obtained from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Contractor shall not acquire or permit any subcontractor to acquire any steel or manufactured products produced outside the United States for use in any work under this FAA funded Contract. “ (my emphasis)
When President Obama took office, there was a new leadership team in the FAA which came down with a interpetation that basically stated it was going to begin enforcement of this long-standing rule. Previously the provision sited above wasn’t really “enforced” and was widely regarded as pertaining to the importation of steel from China when the steel mills in the US were being murdered and closed in the late 70’s and 80’s. This new FAA ruling became known as a Program Guidance Letter for all of us working in this field.
I became tasked with the process of determining just what exactly was being manufactured in the good old USA. The short answer: not much. (That might have also had a hand in the non-enforcement of the FAA ruling by previous administrations.) We provided, as part of sound insulation work, air conditioning and heating systems for the homes that needed it. Our major provider of that equipment was Carrier. Trane and a couple of other manufacturers filled a minor role. So, in my due diligence, I contacted Carrier as I had previously seen HVAC units on site over the past several years from all over the place. Trane HVAC equipment came up less, so I went with the major supplier first. Carrier’s most recently supplied units came from mainly Mexico.
During this research, done in 2012, I was told by the Carrier sales rep I spoke with that the only way to identify the point of manufacturing of the units was by the serial number and that only ONE series of serial numbers designated, “some place in Indiana” . So, now we hear how his holy highness of orange has single handedly saved The workers in Indiana from ruin. The 1400 who will be laid off and those who labored at other places in the USA where Carrier equipment is no longer manufactured have long since gone on to something else to feed themselves and their families.
Anybody in the MSM want to pick up on this story and run with it? I just gave you the direction to start looking. If I had known this is where we would be today, I would have written down the names and numbers of those I spoke with for verification. In my own defense, I was a CM trying to find out how we could continue to do our jobs under this new ruling. I retired before I found out if the FAA ever did issue any “prior approval” for any items used as directed. Probably very few, if any.
That is a different story. Thanks for taking the time to read this.
