AUSTINTOWN GE to lay off 14, union leader says

The leader says job cuts are bad but will make the plant more competitive.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- General Electric, which acknowledged last week plans to eliminate 78 jobs from its Warren Ohio Lamp plant, is also reducing the work force at its Austintown Products plant.
Janet Bernard, president of International Union of Electrical Workers/Communication Workers of America Local 734, said 14 jobs will be eliminated at the Austintown facility, bringing the work force there to about 100. The plant makes light-bulb filaments.
The Warren layoffs will bring the work force to about 322 at that plant, GE's largest of three in the Mahoning Valley. GE also has a Niles facility, its Niles Mahoning Glass plant, which employs about 220 and makes glass.
Permanent layoffs at both plants will take effect Sept. 2.
GE officials said employees were informed about the Austintown cuts last month, although no public announcement was made.
What's behind the cuts
Bernard said the job losses can be attributed to several factors: a slow economy, sluggish sales for GE's lighting products, recent stockpiling by the company and the cheap cost of foreign labor.
"Mexico and Hungary have taken a lot of our equipment," said Bernard, who works in the Austintown plant.
"GE is out to get as much profit margin as it can, and it can certainly make more from a worker in Mexico or Hungary. In my opinion, they prostitute those people and make exorbitant profit margins on them, and the people who are hurt are the American people."
On the positive side, however, Bernard acknowledged that the layoffs will reduce costs and make the Austintown plant more competitive.
GE will save money by switching from three shifts to two, she said, eliminating the 10 percent shift differential paid workers on the midnight shift. With two shifts operating, the plant will use more of its equipment, Bernard said, which will reduce the likelihood of having unused equipment shipped out to a foreign GE facility.
"We hate to see jobs lost, but in a way there's more security with the two shifts," she said.
Other plants affected
Bernard said other GE lighting plants have also been hit with layoff notices. A Bridgeville plant near Pittsburgh will lose 40 jobs, a plant in Circleville, Ohio will lose 80, a plant in Bucyrus, Ohio will drop 70 and a small Dover, Ohio plant will lose seven or eight.
GE reduced the Austintown plant work force by about one-third when it eliminated 21 positions in November 2001, and 40 more the following May. The plant employed 171 before those cuts.
Those cuts were made when the company transferred part of its incandescent coiling operations to Monterrey, Mexico, and Hajdubosormeny, Hungary.
A GE spokeswoman has said some workers affected by this newest round of layoffs may be eligible for early retirement and a $14,000 retirement bonus. GE also provides tuition assistance for retraining and education, along with an Income Extension Aid program, which supplements state unemployment benefits to provide laid-off workers with 75 percent of their pay for a limited time.
The company also continues workers' medical, dental, vision and life insurance benefits for one year after their jobs are eliminated.
vinarsky@vindy.com