Boeing plans job cuts at South Carolina facility where Trump declared he would 'fight for every last American job'

Advertisement

Donald Trump Carrier jobs

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Then-President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence talk with factory workers during a visit to the Carrier factory, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016, in Indianapolis, Ind.

Some workers at a Boeing facility in South Carolina are being laid off from the company, five months after President Donald Trump visited the plant, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.

Advertisement

"We are going to fight for every last American job," Trump said during a stop at the North Charleston plant in February.

In a statement from Boeing cited by The Post, the company said, "Our competition is relentless, and that has made clear our need as a company to reduce cost to be more competitive. We are offering resources to those affected by layoffs to help them in finding other employment and ease their transition as much as possible."

Although Boeing declined to state exactly how many people would lose their jobs and when the layoffs would start, affected employees appeared to be coming from a diverse set of departments, including engineering, quality control and training, and operations management, according to The Post.

The latest layoffs coincide with Boeing's announcement in December, when the company announced it would downsize its staff after scaling down this year's production of the Boeing 777 aircraft by 40%, due to lower demand.

Advertisement

This particular Boeing plant holds some significance to Trump's campaign promise for job growth in the manufacturing industry. It was one of the president's first visits to a company after his inauguration.

"We're here today to celebrate American engineering and American manufacturing," Trump said during his visit on February 17. "We're also here today to celebrate jobs. Jobs!"

Carrier, another company that Trump put the spotlight on during his campaign, was set to layoff around 600 employees starting in July, CNBC reported.

Due in part to Trump's admonishments shortly after the 2016 election, Carrier said it would preserve about 1,069 jobs for 10 years at its Indiana plant in exchange for $7 million in incentives from the government. Trump touted the arrangement in November last year.

"The jobs are still leaving," said Robert James, president of United Steelworkers Local 1999, in CNBC's report. "Nothing has stopped."

Advertisement

"To me this was just political, to make it a victory within Trump's campaign, in his eyes that he did something great," said T.J. Bray, an employee at Carrier. "I'm very grateful that I get to keep my job, and many others, but I'm still disappointed that we're losing a lot."

Get the latest Boeing stock price here.

NOW WATCH: This $13M Rolls-Royce could be the most expensive new car ever built