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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowGov. Mike Pence has met with executives from a company planning to close two Indiana factories, but said afterward he didn't want to give any false hope of the 2,100 jobs staying in the state.
Pence's meeting at the Statehouse on Wednesday with United Technologies Corp. executives came three weeks after the company announced it would close the factories in Indianapolis and Huntington, and move the heating, ventilation and air conditioning machinery production to Mexico.
Pence said he was assured that the company would keep about 400 research-and-development and executive jobs in the state.
Company subsidiaries are closing a 1,400-worker Carrier Corp. plant in Indianapolis and a United Technologies Electronic Controls factory in Huntington with 700 jobs.
United Technologies executive Robert McDonough wouldn't say whether those decisions might change.
Pence said the company has agreed to return $1.2 million it saved in a tax abatement from Indianapolis and $382,000 in received in training grants from the state.
United Technologies received $182,500 in grants to train 522 workers in Huntington as part of a 2010 incentives contract with the Indiana Economic Development Corp. It also received $140,500 to train 608 workers as part of a 2007 contract.
Carrier Corp. in Indianapolis received $197,815 in grants from the IEDC to train 500 workers as part of a 2013 incentives contract.
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