General Electric said Wednesday it plans to cut up to 6,500 jobs in Europe in the energy units it acquired from France's Alstom last year. "The restructuring plan will touch several European countries and impact potentially 6,500 jobs out of 35,000," a GE spokesman told AFP, confirming in part a report in the L'Est Republican newspaper saying up to 10,000 jobs could go world-wide.
The US industrial giant completed in November its acquisition of the power and grid businesses of Alstom for 9.7 billion euros ($10.5 billion) after making a number of pledges to win the support of the French government and fend off competition from rivals like German company Siemens. One of those pledges was to create a net 1,000 high-skilled jobs in France, a promise that GE intends to honour, the spokesman said, despite 765 jobs due to go in France as part of this restructuring.
French government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said it would monitor the company's implementation of its commitments. In order to secure the deal for Alstom's prized gas turbine unit - a large, lucrative business with long-term contracts and income stream in a sector in which GE was already the world leader, the US company had to create three new joint ventures covering renewable energy, electricity grids and nuclear power. The French government, which has a veto over sales in strategic sectors of the economy, was concerned about losing the industrial base for key nuclear power technologies and was sensitive about job losses as the country's economy splutters. The GE spokesman said the company would begin talks with French labour unions about the job cuts, saying they would come through voluntary departures and retraining would be offered to those in affected positions.
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