LYNN — Following General Electric’s decision to split into three separate entities and cut more than 80 jobs at the Lynn plant, U.S. Sen. Edward Markey met with GE Aviation plant workers on Thursday at the Industrial Division of Communication Workers of America (IUE-CWA) 201 union hall.
The Massachusetts Democrat said he disagreed with the company’s decision to send the jobs offshore and said there is a national-security interest in keeping workers in the United States as engines and other parts for defense machinery are made at the Lynn plant.
“This is another tip of the iceberg that is warning America, Massachusetts and Lynn that corporate profits are more important than America’s national security and investment in the workers here who have protected it for generations,” Markey said.
Markey was joined by IUE-CWA Local 201 President Adam Kaszynski, Lynn Mayor Jared Nicholson, state Reps. Daniel Cahill (D-Lynn) and Peter Capano (D-Lynn), state Sen. Brendan Crighton (D-Lynn), and 15 members of IUE-CWA Local 201.
Kaszynski said GE had decided to split the company into three divisions — aviation, health care and energy — and move workers in an attempt to save money without any input from workers or shareholders of the company.
“The senator is right,” Kaszynski said. “GE has made these core decisions about the future of Lynn to increase their profit.”
GE spokesperson Alexis Kievning said the reason for the decision was because it will help GE Aviation provide long-term growth and improve upon the delivery system located at the Lynn plant.
“Lynn’s delivery delinquency continues to be a pain point for our customers, and we must strategically address it for the long-term,” she said. “These changes are being made to redeploy our highly skilled Lynn workforce to more strategic areas, which in turn will improve on-time delivery for our customers.”
When the company announced the decision in November, Markey, along with U.S Sen. Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton sent a letter to GE Lynn Aviation CEO John Slattery, calling on GE to reverse course on their decision.
On Feb. 14, 30 Local 201 members participated in a protest at GE headquarters in Boston. There, Kaszynski entered the building and handed a list of the union’s demands to the company’s staff.
These demands include GE investing at least $5 billion over the next five years and adding 35,000 jobs to existing and recently shuttered U.S. facilities; restoring all U.S. military aviation production and 70 percent of GE industrial work offshored over the past five years; letting shareholders vote on the proposed breakup of GE; add elected worker representatives to the GE Board of Directors, and convert historic GE facilities into multi-modal brilliant factories with supplier parks that would create offshore-wind supply chains on the east coast.
Markey, who has supported renewable energy and is the chairman of the United States Senate subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate and Nuclear Safety, said Lynn’s open shores provide an opportunity to become an offshore-wind supply site just like the Vineyard Wind project located at Salem Harbor.
“I’m with these workers,” he said. “Lynn’s open shores have the opportunity to provide clean, renewable energy.”
