Labor & Employment Law

$93 Million Upgrade Will Save GE Plant and 700 Jobs

By James Parks

Workers at a General Electric?s (GE’s) refrigerator plant in Bloomington, Ind., have been fighting to keep the facility viable in the cutthroat global economy. Now, two years after the company said it was going to shutter the plant, workers are celebrating a new day. Instead of closing the plant, GE has announced it will invest $93 million in upgrades and begin to produce energy-efficient refrigerators at the plant.

Not only will that save the jobs of the plant?s 700 workers, most of whom have 20 years or more experience, it will create 200 new jobs, which GE will move back to Bloomington from Mexico.

In a video (above), the workers credit their union, Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 2449, for much of the turnaround. One worker, Tammy Gilstrap, says:

We have a great union that is willing to go out and do what it can to save our jobs. We have a lot of dedicated employees in here and if we can get new technology, that?ll be a good future for us.

Carven Thomas, business manager for Local 2249, says the decision to invest in the plant is evidence of a growing realization in the country of the importance of manufacturing.

There is a great call and awakening going on in our country that we need to have a manufacturing industry. We need to become a country that produces once again.

In December 2009, GE also announced it is moving 400 jobs from China to its Appliance Park plant in Louisville, Ky., and will invest $80 million to upgrade the plant to make energy-efficient heaters. The Appliance Park workers are represented by IUE-CWA.    

Earlier this week, the UAW applauded Ford Motor Co.?s announcement that it will invest $400 million in its Kansas City, Mo., assembly plant over the next two years, which will save at least 3,750 jobs at the plant, plus thousands of other supporting jobs. Read the story here.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on January 20, 2011 (boomark / email).