GE Lighting Bucyrus workers to deliver petition and hold Press Conference outside Senator Rob Portman’s Columbus office

BUCYRUS AND COLUMBUS—Dozens of workers from General Electric’s Bucyrus plant are traveling to Columbus, Ohio this Wednesday, March 23 to deliver a petition to Senator Rob Portman’s office and hold a press conference and rally outside.

The petition calls on Senator Portman to support legislation that would mandate the Department of Defense to buy Made in America LED lightbulbs, a move that would protect good jobs in Ohio.

At 9:00 a.m. CT, workers will board a bus outside the Bucyrus GE Lighting factory located at 1250 S Walnut St in Bucyrus, and travel to Senator Portman’s Columbus office, arriving at 10:45 a.m. CT to hold a press conference, rally, and deliver the petition.

Dozens of GE workers will board a bus outside of the Bucyrus GE Lighting factory at 9:00 a.m. CT, then arrive at 10:45 a.m. CT outside Senator Portman’s office with picket signs and banners, rallying and holding a press conference as a delegation delivers a petition to the office.

Speakers:

Carl Kennebrew, President of IUE-CWA

Tim Burga, President, Ohio AFL-CIO

Will Evans, President, IUE-CWA Local 84704

Barb Basore, GE Lighting Bucyrus plant worker whose family has provided a combined 500 years of service to the company.

Bucyrus’ GE Lighting workers learned on March 9 that the company intends to shut down their plant, a move that would eliminate 174 good union jobs and have a devastating impact on the local economy.

That same week, Senate Republicans torpedoed an amendment that could have protected those jobs and brought more work to the facility by requiring LED bulbs purchased by the Department of Defense be made or assembled in the United States. The provision, which was introduced by Congressman Tim Ryan, had previously garnered bipartisan support in the House’s Defense Appropriations Bill.

The majority of the workers are Republican and say they want Senator Portman to return the loyalty that many of them have shown him by helping elect him to office. They want him to support new Buy American Lightbulb legislation in the Senate.

The bad news for Bucyrus is just the latest in General Electric and GE Lighting’s offshoring and outsourcing domestic union manufacturing jobs across Ohio and the country – jobs that were integral to the manufacturing giant’s success – and comes despite GE having received billions in taxpayer funding for decades.