ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 31, 1996 TAG: 9612310101
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS AND MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITERS
More than 900 production workers at General Electric Motors and Industrial Systems division in Salem will be out of work for two weeks as the plant tries to compensate for an order imbalance.
Company spokesman Mike Allee said Monday the shutdown, which begins next Monday, will replace the plant's usual two-week summer break. Employees will be required to take vacation time while the plant is closed, he said.
Allee said the problem is timing: Some of the larger systems GE makes for industrial customers may take up to a year to reach production. Right now, the plant simply doesn't have any work ready for the factory floor.
The company doesn't anticipate closing down again this summer, Allee said. "We certainly hope this is going to take care of the problem," he said.
Michael Shepherd, administrative chief steward with the International Union of Electronic Workers, said the union was concerned because 90 new workers have been hired at the plant in recent months, and the shutdown was characterized by management as being necessary to save 100 jobs.
"We're very concerned about the business and the way it's being managed now. It's kind of a sudden shock for a lot of people," he said of the plans to idle the plant.
During the last half of 1996, employees worked overtime every weekend, Shepherd said. "It seems like the bottom fell out for the first quarter" of 1997, he said.
The union has had difficulty obtaining information from management to discuss the plant's situation, Shepherd said. ``We'd like at least to know what's going on.''
The Salem plant, owned by the General Electric Co. of Fairfield, Conn., manufactures controls and motor drive systems for steel and paper mills and other industrial plants.
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