Doug Leggins, Does this affect you? Options

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I hope this doesn't affect you!

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GE to lay off 525 workers in Bloomington
Cuts will reduce workforce at the refrigerator factory by nearly one-third, move jobs to Mexico.
Star and news services report
July 30, 2004

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- General Electric Co. said today it planned to lay off 525 employees at its Bloomington refrigerator plant by the end of March 2005.

The cuts will reduce the plant's work force of more than 1,600 employees by nearly one-third.

GE officials decided to discontinue production in Bloomington of the company's line of higher-priced refrigerator models and move that line to a plant in Celaya, Mexico.

"We just couldn't be competitive," Dirk Bowman, the Bloomington plant's president and general manager, told The Herald-Times.

About 1,125 employees will continue to be employed at the plant, making refrigerator models that sell for less than $1,000.

The president of the union local representing workers at the plant said last week he expected up to 600 layoffs.

The plant has been hit hard by layoffs before as it lost 1,400 jobs in 1999 when GE moved work to a Mexican plant.

Bloomington got good news last week when Schulte Corp. said it will invest $20 million in an expansion that will bring 220 jobs to the city in the next five years.

Cincinnati-based Schulte -- a home storage and organization products company -- purchased the last of three facilities previously occupied by Thomson Consumer Electronics, said Linda Williamson, president of the Bloomington Economic Development Corp.

The company has outgrown its current Bloomington facility and will consolidate its manufacturing and distribution operations in the new building, officials said.