General Electric site in Stafford closing leaving jobs at risk
Jobs are at risk as General Electric is set to close one of its factories in Stafford this week.
One of the bases on the firm’s Lichfield Road site is set to close, as the company looks to gather its steam turbine and generator repair facilities on a single site in Rugby.
A spokeswoman for the company said that the closure was first proposed in December 2017 and confirmed to employees in June last year.
The spokeswoman said: “With the changing power market in Europe it was necessary for GE to consolidate its steam turbine and generator repair facilities on a single site in Rugby UK.
"This meant the closure of one of GE’s Stafford facilities, which was first proposed in December 2017 and confirmed to employees in June 2018.
“The site in Stafford will cease manufacturing at the end of this month with no disruption to customers as we transition to Rugby. GE will continue to have a presence in Stafford.”
Last year it was announced that the axe was set to fall on 120 jobs at General Electric, with hundreds more still at risk.
It was announced at the end of 2017 that the firm was closing one of its four factories at the site and staff said they were told 120 jobs were set to go over the next two years.
Staff were called into meetings in January last year and told how redundancies were likely to be phased until 2020.
GE needs to save £750m around the world this year, blaming a fall in demand for new power stations and lack of investment for the cost-cutting drive.
The proposal is to close the Power Services factory at Lichfield Road and the Leicester Road Power Conversion site in Rugby and transfer some of the activities to other GE Power sites.
A Unite spokesperson said: “This has been a phased closure beginning last summer.
"Throughout the process Unite has been assisting our members with securing alternative employment with GE or in the redundancy process.
"Unite remains very disappointed with the closure of this factory and is very conscious that it will have a major effect on the local economy in Stafford.”
Philip Atkins, Staffordshire County Council leader, said when the announcement was made in 2018 the council worked with partners to ensure support for affected staff was in place.
