Screw That Bulb: Locals Fight for GE Investment $

Cleveland, Ohio

Locals representing the 1,200 members at General Electric lighting plants have launched a new campaign calling for increased investment in advanced technology in U.S. plants.

The campaign centers on GE's promotion of energy saving light bulbs known as compact fluorescent light bulbs, or CFLs.

CFLs have become the darling of the environmental movement, with Wal-Mart heavily promoting them and several states introducing legislation to mandate their use.

But the CFLs sold in this country are manufactured exclusively in China.

Moreover, as GE tried to position itself as a "green" company, it asked its employees, including the lighting workers, to sign a pledge to use the CFLs. In other words, it was asking the lighting workers, who make incandescent bulbs, to pledge themselves out of a job.

"The audacity of GE to ask our members to purchase bulbs against their own economic self-interest is simply amazing" said GE Conference Board Chairman Bob Santamoor. "GE doesn't have to force these workers to choose between a job or a clean environment, and it doesn't have to force consumers to choose either. GE should do the right thing and invest in American plants."

The CFL bulbs last longer and use less energy than the typical incandescent bulbs found in most U.S. homes Ð but can cost up to 10 times the price.

The growth of "environmentally sustainable technology" was supposed to stimulate the U.S. economy, not lead to further deindustrialization.

Groups like the National Resources Defense Council and Public Citizen and leading presidential candidates Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) all link "greentech" to economic growth and middle-class job creation.

But that's not what's happening at GE as production of CFLs is limited solely to China, a country known for exploiting workers and polluting the environment.

"GE isn't allowing us to have technology that will create sustainable jobs," says Austintown, Ohio Local 734 President Rita Bugzovich, who represents 68 workers making filaments for incandescent bulbs in Austintown, Ohio. "We want to have a future in this country too."

As a company, General Electric is synonymous with the light bulb: Thomas Edison's incandescent bulbs built GE into the global corporation it is today. But if GE has its way, it will no longer manufacture light bulbs in the United States.

"If GE had made the right choice and invested in equipment in our plants, we could be making the very same CFL bulbs," observes Chuck Masilonis, president of Cleveland, Ohio Local 707 which has 452 members at GE Lighting.

Since 1980, employment in GE lighting has dropped by 68 percent. If everyone switched to the Chinese-made CFL bulbs, all U.S. plants would close.

To tell GE to invest in U.S. plants, sign the pledge at www.ScrewThatBulb.