Niles plant will close next year

By Don Shilling

GE is in the process of cutting its local operations from four plants to one.

NILES — General Electric plans to close its Mahoning Glass Plant here next year, eliminating 109 jobs.

It would be the third plant that GE has closed in the region since last year as it deals with a struggling economy and a move to more energy-efficient lights.

“It’s another blow to the area at a time when people can least afford it,” said Stephen Tormey, a spokesman for the Pittsburgh-based United Electricial Workers, the union that represents the workers.

He criticized GE for closing domestic plants while using energy-efficient lights that are made in other countries such as China.

GE said Thursday that it will enter into bargaining with union officials in Niles to determine if there is a way to save the Mahoning Glass Plant. The talks will last up to 60 days.

The closing would occur in July 2010 if the talks aren’t successful, GE said.

The company said about 60 percent of the workers are eligible to retire with pensions. GE also offers other severance benefits, including health-care benefits for a year or longer in some cases.

Officials with Local 751 of the UE at Niles could not be reached.

The Niles plant supplies glass for incandescent spotlights and floodlights that are becoming obsolete, said Janice Fraser, a company spokeswoman.

Customers are moving toward more energy-efficient lights, such as fluorescents and LEDs, and governments around the world are passing legislation that ban the use of incandescent lights in the future, she said. Incandescents will be banned in the U.S. in 2012.

In addition, the recession has reduced demand for the products made in Niles, she said. GE said in March that it was going to temporarily close the plant for half of this year, although the closing had not happened yet.

Fraser said work from the plant would be moved to a similar facility in Kentucky. Both plants had been operating at reduced volume, so the combination will make operations more efficient, she said.

The Kentucky plant was chosen because it has lower operating costs and makes a wider range of products, she said. It also is unionized.

The closing would leave GE with just one plant in the Mahoning Valley. The Ohio Lamp Plant in Warren employs 320. It produces specialty incandescent lights, such as those for candelabras, and halogen lights.

Six years ago, GE employed 600 workers at four area plants.

In 2008, it closed the Austintown Products Plant, which made filaments for incandescent bulbs, and the Niles Glass Plant, which produced glass for high-intensity lights such as streetlights. When they closed, the Austintown plant employed about 70, and the other plant employed about 60.

shilling@vindy.com