BUCYRUS — At Tuesday’s Bucyrus City Council meeting, Steve Pifer former City Councilman and Vice President of the IUE-CWA Local 84704 Union at GE Lighting in Bucyrus. Addressed the moving of the LED lighting line at the Bucyrus plant to China. Pifer added that Walmart made a pledge in 2014 to invest $50 billion in made in the USA products. Pifer wanted to know what changed “We were told the LED was the future of the plant in the Bucyrus lighting operations.”
He also explained how GE made plans behind the scenes to offshore the production of the LED bulbs to China. He went on to talk about Savant and how the investment firm the Wall Street Hedge Fund, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. that owns them does business. In 2014 KKR took a 35% stake in Savant Systems. Pifer explained that “KKR is one of the first and most notorious firms that takes stakes in US companies and squeezes them for a short term boost in value and then unloads them and looks to the next target.” He went on to explain how by taking the line from the Bucyrus plant, by shifting ownership, but not control of GE Lighting, GE will avoid millions of dollars in severance pay to employees in Bucyrus as mandated by the collective bargaining agreement with GE. The first group of 81 employees are being laid off this week at the Bucyrus plant.
Pifer asked Mayor Reser and elected officials to accompany him to Walmart’s National Headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas to ask Walmart to fulfill the pledge Walmart made 7 and a half years ago. Walmart is the sole customer of the GE LED bulb that GE is shipping to China. “if we sit back quietly it is most likely that the remaining jobs will follow this first group and the entire facility in Bucyrus will close.” Pifer said.