In announcing that Carrier would keep 1,000 jobs in the United States instead of moving them to Mexico, company officials said they received a $7 million tax break, promised by the state of Indiana. And President-elect Donald Trump championed the agreement as a campaign promise delivered.
But many others wondered if another deal had been struck with Carrier’s parent company, United Technologies, known as UTC. For years, UTC has been a major federal government contractor, most notably with the Defense Department, pulling in billions of dollars a year. Before it sold off its Sikorsky division to Lockheed Martin last year, it supplied the Pentagon with Black Hawks and won the contract to build the next fleet of presidential helicopters.
Through another subsidiary, Pratt and Whitney, UTC makes the engines for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the most expensive weapons program in the history of the Pentagon. Earlier this year, Pratt and Whitney received a contract worth nearly $2 billion for the latest batch of engines, and the program is just ramping up.
The question then is: Could Trump use the federal procurement process to influence companies to do what he wants?
Join the conversation as a VIP Member