ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 12, 1996 TAG: 9601130001
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SCHENECTADY, N.Y.
SOURCE: Associated Press
General Electric Co. said it will lay off nearly 400 workers this month at its manufacturing plant. Lower demand for products made at its Industrial and Power Systems operation in Schenectady has forced the company to eliminate 360 hourly jobs and 30 white-collar positions, GE officials said. The hourly jobs will be eliminated effective Jan. 19.
``Some critical orders we were counting on to provide factory load in 1996 have been delayed, canceled or lost on price to the competition as in the case of a recent bid in Korea,'' said Stephen Bransfield, vice president of production for GE Power Generation.
``These layoffs are unfortunate, but necessary to assure our longer range competitiveness,'' Bransfield said.
The layoffs are not expected to have any ripple impact on GE's industrial drive system plant, which makes automated controls, in Salem, a spokesman said.
The company announced in 1994 that it planned to cut its Schenectady work force by 2,000. GE employment here has gone from 8,200 in January 1994 to its current level of 5,200, said Leonard Doviak, a GE Power Systems spokesman.
GE makes gas turbines and generators at its Schenectady facility. Doviak said the Power Systems division suffered setbacks when a project in the Middle East was delayed, a contract with India was canceled and South Korea rejected a GE bid for a major power project.
LENGTH: Short : 36 linesby CNB