GELS will be ‘business as usual'

EAST FLAT ROCK— General Electric has shed some light on a possible "spin-off" option that was announced to employees in meetings Thursday.

GE announced Thursday that it will continue to explore all options on spinning-off its Appliances, Lighting and Industrial units to existing shareholders. GE Lighting Systems in East Flat Rock, one of Henderson County's most enduring industries, is one of those plants.

If the spin-off option is chosen it will not affect the East Flat Rock plant in any way, GE Spokeswoman Kim Freeman said.

"It will be business as usual," she said.

Freeman addressed the negotiations that would be in place for employee benefits if the spin-off happens.

"We always strive to offer comparable salary, pension and benefit packages to what they already have," she said.

If the change occurs, GELS will change its name and become a stand-alone company while continuing to make GE products.

It will have its own board members, stock holders and a new stock symbol. The change, if it happens, will occur in 2009.

The spin-off is a strategy to complete the transformation for the company's industrial portfolio, GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said in the press release.

The step is necessary to preserve the company's long-term growth, he said.

But some employees still feel they are left in the dark.

Tosha Miller, 21, is among 200 employees scheduled to lose their jobs this year as part of a restructuring announced last year. She said she will be getting laid off in the next couple of months.

She attended an employee meeting Thursday and said employees are getting the runaround.

She was told that anyone who is keeping their jobs will keep benefits and salaries for 12 to 18 months.

"After that the new company can do what they want," she said. "No one has a clue what is going to happen after 2010."

She is concerned about the employees that will still be working at the plant after she leaves the company.

"I worry about those people," Miller said.

GE last August announced plans to lay off 200 full-time employees after the East Flat Rock plant transferred some of its operations to outside suppliers.

An additional 85 temporary employees were also expected to lose their jobs as a result of the changes.

The company said the restructuring was necessary to improve the its ability to compete in the global lighting fixture market.

The company outsourced its die cast production, ballast components, sheet metal and part of the assembly operation to suppliers "who can more cost-efficiently manufacture and assemble the parts," according to a GELS press release.

The GELS plant had 680 full-time employees before the layoffs started earlier this year. The plant has operated in Hendersonville since 1955.

GE serves customers in more than 100 countries and employs more than 300,000 people worldwide.
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