WAUKESHA, Wis. — General Electric Power & Water said it will stop manufacturing gas engines in Wisconsin and move the work to Canada, meaning the loss of 350 jobs in a Milwaukee suburb, because the U.S. Congress has failed to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank.
The plant in Waukesha, Wis., builds engines for power generation applications. GE said it plans to build a $265 million factory in Canada over the next 20 months, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
GE blames Congress for failing to reauthorize the bank, which finances sales of industrial equipment.
“We believe in American manufacturing, but our customers in many cases require Export Credit Agencies financing for us to bid on projects,” GE vice chairman John Rice said in a statement. “Without it, we cannot compete and our customers may be forced to select other providers. We know these announcements will have regrettable impact not only on our employees but on the hundreds of U.S. suppliers we work with that cannot move their facilities, but we cannot walk away from our customers.
Rice said Fairfield-based GE continues to urge Congress to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank for all American companies.
“However, we must prepare for the worst case and arrange export finance outside the U.S. Unfortunately, this will come at the expense of American jobs. In a slow growth and volatile world, we must go where the markets are and compete in over 170 countries,” Rice said.
GE said the plant closure will take place in phases over the next 20 months and that its decision will not be reversed.
GE Power & Water is headquartered in Schenectady, N.Y. Most of the 350 Waukesha manufacturing employees are represented by the International Association of Machinists.
Union spokesman Frank Larkin said the bank “was one of those rare government programs that worked as intended; it protected American jobs and returned a profit to the U.S. Treasury. Killing the bank means thousands of U.S. jobs will be needlessly sacrificed for an extreme political agenda.”
Waukesha Mayor Shawn Reilly said he hopes a solution can be reached to retain those jobs.
“My hope is that this is not a final decision and I will be able to work with General Electric and our state and federal partners to retain those important jobs here,” Reilly said in a statement.
The 81-year-old Export-Import Bank provides loans, credit guarantees and insurance to aid sales by U.S. companies. The bank’s charter expired June 30 when Republican members of Congress, who say the bank benefits only a few large corporations that don’t need government assistance, blocked a reauthorization vote.
