January, 21 2011, 01:41pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Michael Briggs or Will Wiquist (202) 224-5141
Sanders Hopes Immelt Focuses on U.S. Jobs
President Obama
today named Jeffrey R. Immelt, chairman and chief executive of General
Electric, to lead the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
The
GE chiarman has been outspoken about job growth - not in the United
States but in China. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) hoped the appointment
means Immelt has reformed his thinking.
WASHINGTON
President Obama
today named Jeffrey R. Immelt, chairman and chief executive of General
Electric, to lead the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
The
GE chiarman has been outspoken about job growth - not in the United
States but in China. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) hoped the appointment
means Immelt has reformed his thinking.
"I
hope he changes his mind and focuses on rebuilding the manufacturing
sector here in the United States, not in China, and in the process
creates millions of good-paying jobs," Sanders said during a visit to
this once-thriving industrial community in Vermont's Connecticut River
Valley.
"For
the sake of our manufacturing sector and the collapsing middle class,
let's hope that Mr. Immelt's appointment by President Obama indicates a
transformation in his thinking," Sanders added. "It is time for GE and
other large and profitable corporations to start investing in America
again."
Since
2009, General Electric has closed more than 25 manufacturing plants in
the United States and slashed thousands of jobs, according to the United
Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. GE now employs more
workers overseas than it does in the United States. While GE has laid
off at least 10,000 workers in the United States, it has created more
than 30,000 jobs in India over the past decade.
In
a Senate floor speech last month, Sanders discussed the disappearance
of manufacturing jobs in the United States. During the 8 1/2 hour speech,
the senator cited a statement by Immelt at an investors' meeting on Dec.
6, 2002. Said Immelt: "When I am talking to GE managers, I talk China,
China, China, China, China. You need to be there. You need to change
the way people talk about it and how they get there. I am a nut on
China. Outsourcing from China is going to grow to $5 billion. We are
building a tech center in China. Every discussion today has to center on
China. The cost basis is extremely attractive."
Immelt's
views were consistent with those of his predecessors at GE. Former CEO
Jack Welch spoke in 2000 of the company's search for cheap labor:
"Ideally, we'd have every plant we own on a barge." And Frank Doyle, a
former GE executive vice president, was unusually blunt in a 1995
interview when he told BusinessWeek magazine about the company's
workforce policies: "We did a lot of violence to the expectations of the
American workforce....We downsized. We delayered. And we outsourced."
To watch Sanders discuss Immelt and jobs in China, click here.
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