Coalition for Sustainable and Secure Energy and Aviation Manufacturing calls for GE Action

VIDEO: General Electric faces new call by Schumer, Warren, coalition of U.S. military, climate and labor leaders to abandon failed strategy, reinvest in American manufacturing

BOSTON, May 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ahead of today's General Electric Annual Shareholders Meeting, a national coalition says GE must reinvest in U.S. manufacturing to fix domestic supply chain problems and strengthen its renewable energy and defense aviation divisions. Click here for the video.

On Monday, the Coalition for Sustainable and Secure Energy and Aviation Manufacturing convened U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, and Ed Markey, along with leaders from Greenpeace USA, Sierra Club, the U.S. military, labor, industry experts, and GE employees from across the country.

The coalition is urging participants in GE's Annual Shareholder Meeting to vote to include an employee representative on its Board of Directors. Since Trian hedge fund took a minority stake and active role in GE in 2015, the company has spent tens of billions of dollars on stock buybacks, sold off entire business divisions, cut 12,000 jobs, and seen its stock price drop over 53 percent.

The call comes as GE continues its $2.5 billion plan to split the company. Financial experts forecast that private equity buyers will carve up GE after the initial split, underscoring an uncertain future for GE workers and stakeholders.

The coalition says GE must reinvest in the U.S. manufacturing vital to its long-term success, commit to building a sustainable domestic supply chain, and stop American manufacturing job cuts. This is the only way GE can secure its role as a leader advancing green energy with American-made wind turbines and supporting U.S. troops with vital military aviation equipment.

IUE-CWA President Carl Kennebrew: "We're calling on GE to put the industrial future of America first, with a bold $5 billion investment in its U.S. manufacturing and an end to its offshoring and outsourcing, letting workers have a seat on the Board of Directors, and letting shareholders vote on the planned break-up."

Communications Workers of America President Chris Shelton: "Driven by Wall Street, GE is about to spend $2.5 billion to break up the company and $3 billion on new stock buybacks. That's $5.5 billion that is going to bankers and lawyers and middlemen instead of updating and expanding manufacturing facilities, paying good union wages, and making sure we are not dependent on other countries for the critical components of our green energy supply chain."

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY): "I secured $29 million to make the Port of Albany a wind manufacturing hub that would make it possible for GE to manufacture turbines in Upstate New York. We need big investment to deploy our renewable energy opportunities like offshore wind and I want to make sure all of that is done with union labor."

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA): "GE is paid hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars every year which fund its defense, aviation, and energy business. GE must reinvest these dollars back into American workers and our economy."

Greenpeace USA Chief Program Officer Tefere Gebre: "GE has lost its way and needs to step up now to build the next generation of green manufacturing right here in the United States with offshore wind production. As we see climate change and its destructive effects growing worse by the day, it's clear we need companies like GE to act now."

U.S. Army Brigadier General (Ret.) John Adams: "When defense contractors like GE wipe out good jobs by offshoring U.S. military manufacturing, it compromises our ability to respond quickly in a crisis. GE has received billions of dollars in U.S. military contracts. Our taxpayer dollars should be spent for the benefit of our country."

Academic-Industry Research Network President, Dr. William Lazonick: "GE has put the pursuit of high stock yields for parasitic shareholders ahead of rewards to the company's employees for their productive contributions."

UMass Boston Professor, Dr. Nick Juravich, co-author of Building a Sustainable Future for GE: "American workers and communities whose taxes bankroll GE deserve stable, sustainable investment from GE in return, not more of the same disinvestment that has decimated GE's U.S. workforce for decades."

SOURCE Coalition for Sustainable and Secure Energy and Aviation Manufacturing