LYNN — U.S. Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton have sent a letter to General Electric (GE) Aviation urging the company to invest in its workers, preserve jobs at its Lynn manufacturing plant, and to not outsource work from its Lynn facilities.
This letter comes after a recent announcement included the possibility of offloading jobs at the Lynn site to other facilities —some overseas — during the next 18 months.
“Lynn workers have led the way in innovative manufacturing for our country since General Electric’s inception,” Markey, Warren and Moulton said in the letter. “Now, as GE Aviation charts its path forward on its own, we implore you to make an investment in these workers. It is a commitment that they have earned and one that is in the strategic and economic interests of our nation.”
In the letter, the lawmakers asked GE Aviation to make three commitments; return offshored work on the T-700 engine back to Lynn and build the T-901 engine in the U.S.; establish more “brilliant factories” stateside and substantially invest in the Lynn facility; and invest in the American workforce to make American products.
“As a first step and a sign of good faith, we ask that GE immediately rescind the transfer of work announcement delivered to IUE-CWA Local 201 on Friday, Jan. 14, and preserve in Lynn the positions that GE proposes to offload over the next 18 months to other facilities,” the lawmakers said. “Doing so would not only keep work in Lynn, but also demonstrate a commitment by GE to keep manufacturing in the United States and invest in the future of the American workforce.”
GE Aviation spokesperson Alexis Kievning said GE will respond to the letter directly, but there is no involuntary job loss related to this action.
“All 82 workers in the impacted areas will be able to transfer to other jobs within the plant if they so choose,” Kievning said. “We are proud of the more than $100 million we have invested in Lynn and our work to support a strong future there, including hiring more than 550 hourly employees since 2017.”
Of that $100 million invested, $30 million was used in 2021 to refurbish manufacturing and test facilities, and to support two new military engines.
By moving this work, Kievning said GE is able to redeploy its highly skilled workforce to more strategic areas within the Lynn operation, which in turn will improve on-time delivery.
“GE is investing in its Lynn workforce and facility and is committed to developing a pipeline of workers across the North Shore,” Kievning said.
In 2019, the GE Foundation funded a $2.5-million grant for the Advanced Manufacturing Training Expansion Program (AMTEP) focused in Lynn and the North Shore to help develop a pipeline of workers.
In late October 2021, the GE Foundation then made a $4.4-million investment to extend funding for AMTEP through 2025, and donated another $1 million to support the expansion of the state-of-the-art Advanced Manufacturing Center at the Lynn Vocational Technical Institute.
In regards to hiring, Kievning said GE Aviation has hired more than 1,000 employees in Lynn since 2017 and currently has more than 100 jobs open for hire at the site. Of those numbers, more than 550 of those hires were hourly and/or production employees.
President of the IUE-CWA Local 201 Union, Adam Kaszynski, said despite the spin from corporate executives, GE has been “systematically divesting from their Lynn factory for years – slashing the unionized workforce in Lynn from a peak of 18,000 down to 3,000 in 1998, and only 1,175 now.”
“No matter how GE tries to mislead the public about how they’re spending the billions in taxpayer funds they receive every year, the truth is that any hiring they refer to doesn’t keep pace with the job losses here, or even cover retirement and attrition,” Kaszynski said. “GE should get serious about investing in our highly skilled Lynn workforce instead of trying to cover their tracks for systematic divestment from it.”
