A protest was launched by General Electric Aviation staff, demanding that the industrial group push to manufacture ventilators to counter coronavirus. The move came on the same day that GE said it laid off a huge chunk of its workers in domestic aviation.
As distribution protests and grocery store employees on Monday signaled that the coronavirus pandemic is revitalizing the labor movement, General Electric's workers drew national attention to the need of their organization to save money, rather than keep their staff working and alleviate a public health crisis.
The move, announced by The Vice, came the same day that the company bared its worker termination that numbered around 2,500 employees. Additionally, GE will furlough about 50 percent of its staff for three months for maintenance, repair and overhaul.
The protests reflect one of a major U.S. manufacturer's first big layoffs, as the raging coronavirus pandemic shuts down markets across a wide variety of industries globally.
At a news conference organized by the American Communication Workers Industrial Division, GE staff said that the layoffs of experienced employees would make the production of ventilators more difficult, according to The Vice.
Last week, GE reported it was laying off almost 10 percent of its local aerospace workforce - as the health crisis sharply affected sales in the aviation market. The layoffs would help GE save between $500 million and $1 billion, the firm said, while GE Healthcare, one of the largest ventilator manufacturers in the world, will step up its efforts to manufacture the supplies.
Sen. Bernie Sanders expressed solidarity with the workers and demanded that GE put an end to all "layoffs, outsourcing and tax avoidance" and instead invest its vast resources to serve the public, particularly during the national crisis.
Until the coronavirus reared its ugly head, GE began showing symptoms of a turnaround from recent years' woes based on its divisions of power and financial services. Ironically, perhaps the energy conglomerate's strongest segment was aviation as the company started bouncing back. Stocks of the company were pegged at $7.93 at the last review, up 4.1 percent in an increasingly volatile market.
With hospitals across the country reporting a shortage of ventilators and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warning that 100,000 to 200,000 Americans could perish from the deadly disease, the GE staff demanded that their expertise be put to good use and that the company use all its resources to mitigate the shortfall.
