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September 24, 2007
NILES Union leaders at area General Electric plants are bracing for layoffs at the Mahoning and Niles glass plants, blaming the slowdown on the decreasing demand for the traditional incandescent bulbs.
GE is going to reduce the number of employees at the glass plants by one-third, said Dennis Hayda, shop steward, United Electrical Workers Local 751. The decision will cause the loss of jobs of between 20 to 30 employees at the Mahoning plant.
Layoffs at the Mahoning plant are scheduled to take place after Oct. 1, he said.
GE is projecting a slowdown in production of incandescent bulbs made locally from about 91 million in 2006 to between 60 million t0 65 million this year, the union official said, attributing it to the push to more energy-efficient Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulbs.
The layoff announcement came Tuesday at the plant, while Hayda was at an international union meeting in Pittsburgh.
Janice Fraser, a GE spokeswoman, said 21 positions at the Mahoning Glass plant will be eliminated.
The company is right-sizing the plant based on the number of orders it has been receiving, she said.
In addition, the union learned in August the Niles plant will be shutting down for the remainder of the year sometime after the second or third week of October, Hayda said.
The shutdown will affect approximately 50 employees, he said. We (the union) are hoping the company will reopen the Niles plant sometime after the beginning of the year.
Fraser, however, said there has been no announcement to employees about a temporary closing of the Niles plant.
I dont know where the union has gotten its information, Fraser said. We have not made any announcement.
However, she said, over the last 10 years, GE annually has shut down operations at the Niles plant for about six weeks.
Maybe that is where the union is getting that from, she said. They may be estimating when the plant will shut down based on past experiences.
Union officials also are concerned that a Senate Bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., eventually could ban the use of incandescent bulbs by 2014. They said the plants have had fewer orders for this type of bulb.
In 2006, we made approximately 91 million glass pieces for light bulbs, Hayda said. We are projected to make somewhere between 60 million and 65 million glass pieces in 2007, which is about a third.
Hayda believes the slowdown in orders is connected with the push by the makers of light bulbs, environmentalists and politicians to replace incandescent bulbs with more energy efficient Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulbs.
Weve been told that the marketing and selling of the CFLs have been going far better than anyone expected, Hayda said.
On Monday, officials at the GE Nela Park plant in East Cleveland said the company is pushing the sale of CFLs because they are more energy efficient. Fraser denied that the layoffs at the Mahoning plant are connected with CFL sales.
The International Union of Electrical Workers-Communication Workers of America Local 734 sponsored a Screw That Bulb campaign earlier this year that promotes retrofitting United States plants to make CFLs.
We have nothing against the CFLs, Rita Bugzavich, president of IUE Local 734, said. What we want is for GE to make them in the United States.
She admits the unions may be fighting a losing battle.
There is legislation or pending legislation in 10 states, Australia and Canada that would significantly reduce or eliminate the use of incandescent bulbs by 2020. Bingamans Senate Bill 2017 would, if passed, phase out the use and production of the old-style bulbs within seven years.
If this legislation passes, it will be the end of making light bulbs in Ohio and the United States, Bugzavich said. CFLs are made outside of this country, primarily in China.
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