GE to Cut 6,500 Europe Jobs at Former Alstom Businesses -- Update
January 13 2016 - 11:01AM
Dow Jones News
By Blandine Henault and Ted Mann
PARIS-- General Electric Co. said on Wednesday it plans to cut
6,500 jobs in Europe as it moves to integrate Alstom SA's power
business and push through cost savings from the acquisition.
Roughly half of the cuts will fall in France, Germany and
Switzerland, the company said, with other reductions scattered
across the continent.
Job cuts had been expected since GE completed its $10.3 billion
acquisition of Alstom's power business. The American company has
promised investors it can cut roughly $3 billion in annual costs
out of the combined operation by 2020.
GE has not yet announced how many jobs it could eliminate in the
Americas, Africa and Asia, where it is also working to integrate
Alstom's operations with its own power business.
"This is a necessary step to increase the competitiveness of the
former Alstom businesses and generate the synergies we have
targeted," a GE spokesman said. "We will work constructively with
employee representatives throughout the process."
Some workers could find a way back in: GE currently has some
2,000 vacant positions in Europe, the spokesman said.
The total headcount at the Alstom business GE acquired stood at
65,000 worldwide in May 2014. The company employed around 35,000
people in Europe.
GE completed its purchase of the power equipment manufacturing
unit of France's Alstom last year, a key plank of its strategy to
shift back to an industrial base.
The company navigated considerable political currents in France
to secure the deal, outmaneuvering German and Japanese rivals. But
there was a price: GE agreed to create jobs in France, where Alstom
is a major employer.
A GE spokesman in France said the company will cut 765 jobs in
France, with the majority of those at Alstom's headquarters in the
Paris suburb of Levallois and at the electric grid unit. He added
around 50 people have left the company since August.
The French government reacted calmly and pointed to promises
made by GE when it negotiated to take over Alstom's energy
operations.
The government said it would hold the U.S. company accountable
on pledge to create 1,000 jobs in France, net of any layoffs.
Economy minister Emmanuel Macron--whose predecessor Arnaud
Montebourg spearheaded the government's strategy on the deal--said
France would only be marginally impacted by GE's latest plans.
"There will be compensation for any posts eliminated in France,"
Mr. Macron said.
Write to Ted Mann at ted.mann@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 13, 2016 10:46 ET (15:46 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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