GE Announces Job Cuts at U.S. Refrigerator Plant Aug 2, 2004

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General Electric Co. announced plans to lay off 525 employees at its Bloomington, IN, U.S. refrigerator plant by the end of March 2005. The cuts will reduce the plant's workforce of more than 1,600 employees by nearly one-third.

GE officials decided to discontinue production in Bloomington of its higher-priced refrigerator models and move that line to a plant in Celaya, Mexico. "We just couldn't be competitive," Dirk Bowman, the Bloomington plant's president and general manager, told The Herald-Times.

About 1,125 employees will continue to be employed at the plant, making refrigerator models that sell for less than U.S. $1,000.

The president of the union local representing workers at the plant said last week he expected up to 600 layoffs. The plant has been hit hard by layoffs before, as it lost 1,400 jobs in 1999, when GE moved work to a Mexican plant. (Indianapolis Star)

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