Bloomington GE plant to add 200 employees by 2013, become eco-friendly

FROM IDS REPORTS

Bloomington’s General Electric plant appeared to be doomed when the company announced Jan. 17, 2008, that it would be closing down the plant. But this gloom-and-doom forecast changed in 2009 when GE changed its decision.

After GE decided to shut the Bloomington plant down, the plant discovered multiple ways to become more productive, said Mitch Roob, chief executive officer of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation.

“The work force at the Bloomington plant has become far more productive in the last several years,” Roob said in a press release earlier this year. “The workers understood they were living in a world marketplace and needed to make sure they were competitive, and they responded effectively.”

Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan created a GE Taskforce in 2008 which implemented education and employment programs for employees.

“They understand their charge is to mobilize that network toward a widely integrated approach in assisting GE employees and the community,” Kruzan said in a 2008 press release.

Kruzan also formulated a GE Response Team — composed of local Bloomington business leaders — to provide retraining programs and employment services to GE
employees.

Along with these rejuvenation efforts, the Bloomington plant is staying open as part of GE’s $161 million investment to make four of its facilities “centers of excellence,” according to a Jan. 24 press release from www.insideindianabusiness.com.

The Bloomington plant’s investment is part of GE’s $432 million plan to “revitalize” its appliance business and make GE’s U.S. factories more competitive globally.

GE will also enhance the environmental friendliness its refrigerator production at
each plant.

The Bloomington facility will retain all of its 550 workers, and is predicted to create 200 new jobs by 2013.

— Colleen Sikorski