GE’s union: Build offshore wind turbines in Schenectady – Times Union

SCHENECTADY General Electric's largest union, IUE-CWA, says GE should ditch plans to spin off its GE Power division in Schenectady into a separate company and instead invest in making offshore wind turbines at the historic industrial site, which dates back to GE's founding in the 1890s.

IUE-CWA, which represents 600 union workers in Schenectady that make steam turbines and generators used in gas-fired power plants, made the plea last week ahead of GE's annual shareholder meeting.

The Times Union revealed last week that GE has been meeting with state and local officials about potential incentives the company would be eligible for should it decide to establish an offshore wind manufacturing facility in the Capital Region.

IUE-CWA is part of a coalition of labor and environmental groups that wants to see GE become the first U.S.-based company to make offshore wind turbines domestically.

And they see GE's Schenectady campus as the ideal location for such a venture.

The group, known as the Coalition for Sustainable and Secure Energy and Aviation Manufacturing, held a little-watched online conference last week to make its case.

The event included U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer of New York, who has been urging GE to start making offshore wind turbines in the Capital Region and recently secured $29 million in federal funding for the Port of Albany to be able to handle massive offshore wind turbine components.

"GE has no excuse not to put IUE-CWA members in Schenectady, who already have experience in manufacturing turbines, to work building wind turbines we so desperately need," CWA President Chris Shelton said at the event, which was held virtually.

The Port of Albany is already developing a new site along the Hudson River in the town of Bethlehem where offshore wind turbine towers - not the turbines themselves - would be assembled for several wind farms being constructed off the shores of Long Island.

Schumer's federal funding package will provide money for infrastructure upgrades that the Port of Albany needs to handle and ship offshore wind farm components down the Hudson to ocean sites. Offshore wind turbines are much larger than those used in wind farms based on land.

GE makes one of the largest and most powerful offshore wind turbines, called the Haliade-X. The massive turbines stand nearly 900 feet tall, and each one can generate enough electricity to power 20,000 homes.

But the Haliade-X, like other offshore wind turbines, is made abroad currently, closer to existing offshore wind farms in Europe and Asia.

Schumer has been pressuring GE for months to start making the Haliade-X in the Capital Region as well.

"Let's get this done," Schumer said during the online meeting.

GE won't say what its plans are. When asked for comment, a spokesman for GE pointed the Times Union to a statement the company provided the newspaper last week when asked about its discussions about incentives with Gov. Kathy Hochul's administration, which were revealed in state lobbying records.

"We will continue to engage with federal, state and local officials on this topic and other important clean energy priorities," GE said.

GE's factory workers in Schenectady are represented by Local 301, which is the local affiliate of IUE-CWA, which stands for International Union of Electrical Workers-Communications Workers of America.

Christian Gonzalez, who works at GE's Schenectady plant, said during last week's press conference that he and other Local 301 members provide a trained workforce for making offshore wind turbine components in Schenectady.

"We are ready to build the machines that will power our future," Gonzalez said, referring to wind turbine technology that is being embraced as an alternative to fossil fuel power plants that contribute to climate change. "We have the skills, we have the space, and we have a pipeline of workers. But GE has yet to make a commitment."

Efforts to get GE to build a local offshore wind turbine factory come at a critical time in the company's history. Last year, GE's CEO Larry Culp announced plans to break apart GE's three main industrial sectors - healthcare, power and aviation, into three separate public companies.

The spin-off of GE Power is scheduled for 2024. It's unclear what an independent GE Power would look like and whether or not GE's Schenectady operations would survive. Local 301's existing labor contract with GE expires next year, and the last contract negotiations were contentious.

The IUE-CWA claims that GE would end up spending $5 billion to break the company apart, and the union says GE would be better off investing the money in sites like Schenectady, which once employed tens of thousands of union workers. GE says its plans are moving forward.

Gonzalez said he is worried that GE's plans to spin off the Schenectady operations will only mean fewer union jobs in the future. The Schenectady native said when he was hired by GE at the age of 19, it was a dream come true.

"I thought I'd made it," he said. "I thought that I was set."

He said growing up in the city, kids he viewed as well-off financially often had a parent that worked at GE.

"In Schenectady, GE was a symbol of opportunity and hope," Gonzalez said.

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GE's union: Build offshore wind turbines in Schenectady - Times Union