BUCYRUS—Local General Electric Lighting workers are starring in a new national advertising campaign to urge the company to increase the number of union manufacturing jobs in Bucyrus.

Workers from the GE Lighting facility in Bucyrus, Ohio have joined a national coalition that is calling on GE and GE Lighting to bring back a range of manufacturing jobs that have been offshored or outsourced.

“GE Lighting should be investing here in our community. Instead, they have offshored too many jobs, laying off workers and allowing green technology to be produced overseas,” said GE Lighting worker Will Evans, President of IUE-CWA Local 84704.

The powerful new TV commercial urges the manufacturing giant to stop offshoring jobs and to start investing in the workers of America who made the company great.

Will Evans is one local resident and GE Lighting worker who wants to see the company invest in Bucyrus. “GE Lighting knows not only how talented this workforce is, but how much these jobs mean to our community,” said Evans. “Ohio workers have proven time and time again that we have the skills to build quality products used around the world. Instead of disinvesting in communities like ours, GE Lighting should partner with us so we can get to work building these essential items and a brighter future for our country.”

In the ad, workers emphasize the company’s opportunity to invest in their communities. The message includes the statement that GE Lighting, “…has a chance to be a part of our future, by bringing jobs back, to help bring America back.”

Despite receiving over

General Electric received over $4 billion in government contracts during that time to keep jobs in the U.S. over just three years, GE and its licensing partner GE Lighting have been slashing jobs. In Bucyrus, the company sold the Bucyrus lighting facility to Savant, a GE Lighting company in 2019, under a long-term licensing agreement. Shortly thereafter, the factory’s LED light bulb line was offshored to China, laying off 60 workers, and sending the last of America’s residential LED light bulb production overseas.

Local workers say it’s time for GE and GE Lighting to invest in Bucyrus, just like workers invested in the company’s success for so many decades.

“A generation of workers in the United States has been betrayed by the relentless offshoring of what once were family-supporting, middle-class jobs,” said Communications Workers of America president Chris Shelton. “GE is an iconic American company. It has dozens of manufacturing facilities with excess capacity that can be put to use to rebuild our communities and our country.”

Carl Kennebrew, President of IUE-CWA stated, “GE has the chance to once again be a leader in American manufacturing by bringing jobs back to American factories. We are calling on GE to do the right thing and invest in the American factories that fueled their past success. Our workers are highly trained, and stand ready to be a part of the future of American manufacturing – we hope GE will seize this opportunity.”

Led by IUE-CWA, the Manufacturing Division of the Communications Workers of America, “Bring It Home, GE” is the largest national coalition calling on the manufacturing giant to invest in the communities like Bucyrus that built GE into a manufacturing industry powerhouse over decades.

Bucyrus workers marked the launch by taking direct action, donning stickers demanding “Bring it Home, GE Lighting” in a day of protest against the company’s offshoring while receiving billions in public funds. The local worker action was amplified across the country, with GE and GE Lighting workers in five states holding demonstrations – including in Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, Kentucky, and Kansas.

The local workers have the support of organizations fighting for workers’ rights, green jobs, and great jobs for veterans, including Greenpeace; Sierra Club; Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch; AFL-CIO; and veterans group Common Defense.

To learn more about the call for GE to once again reinvest in the local Bucyrus community, visit www.BringItHomeGE.org and www.GreenJobsGreenEconomy.org.

Here is the TV commercial: Bucyrus – BringItHomeGE