Union president reacts to local GE layoffs

A local electrical workers’ union is trying to save more than 100 jobs at a General Electric refrigerator factory in Bloomington.

General Electric Appliances announced layoffs Sept. 9 of about 160 employees at its Bloomington Production Operation facility.

The layoffs are being implemented in order to better align employment levels with consumer demands, according to a GE press release.

The total number of employees at the plant will be reduced from 522 to about 364.
Employees will either qualify for early retirement or be laid off beginning
Oct. 31.

Kim Freeman, public relations manager for GE Appliances, said they have to align their employment with the product that is made for Bloomington.

The demand for side-by-side refrigerators has declined more than 30 percent since 2010, Freeman said.

“I think if the company would have invested more money in our current product, this could have been prevented,” said Carven Thomas, president and business manager of Local 2249 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. “We would have been able to gain more market share, as well, but they had an issue where they took our unit off the floor at Home Depot, which cost us 30,000 units.”

Thomas said IBEW is trying to save as many jobs as possible.

“Our main goal is to keep folks working,” Thomas said. “We had a meeting Sept. 11, and the membership voted on us to sit down to enter into negotiations with the company because there are issues we need to settle as far as retirement and things of that nature that will help lessen the amount of people impacted.”

GE is offering a layoff benefits package and relocation assistance to other manufacturing facilities, according to a press release from GE.

IBEW hasn’t filed any grievances because they are waiting to see how well things go with the negotiations, Thomas said.

He said GE received more than $75 million in federal stimulus money.

“We went from 850 workers down to 500 where we are now after the announcement of the plant close in 2009, and even less after the layoff,” he said. “Out of all the government funding, you would think there would have been a little more accountability attached to those dollars.

— Alli Friedman