Following an announcement last week of major layoffs due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, General Electric workers in Massachusetts protested over demands that the company help address the country’s ventilatory shortage and rehire employees to do so, according to news outlets.

Factory workers at the company’s aviation facility in Lynn and employees at the business’s Boston headquarters protested Monday, demanding that GE convert its jet engine factories to make the piece of medical equipment, Vice reported.

GE announced on March 23 that its aviation division’s workforce in the U.S. would be reduced by roughly 10%. In a statement, CEO H. Lawrence Culp, Jr. said the COVID-19 public health crisis has led to a “rapid contraction” in air travel and a significant decline in demand for commercial airlines.

“Taken together, we expect these cost and cash actions will preserve $500 million to $1 billion in 2020,” Culp said about the company’s actions in the wake of the outbreak’s spread.

Culp noted he would forgo his full salary for the remainder of 2020. A hiring freeze, a cancelation of salaried merit increases, a temporary layoff of half of the company’s maintenance workers and a dramatic reduction in all non-essential spending would also be implemented, he added.

During a press conference, members of the Industrial Division of Communications Workers of America union pointed out that layoffs would undermine efforts to increase ventilator production, according to Vice’s article.

The news outlet reported that union members at GE’s Boston location marched six feet apart, in accordance with social distancing guidelines.

“Ventilators are desperately needed at hospitals in New York, California, Washington State, and Florida. They soon will be in short supply from the East Coast to the West Coast, from Puerto Rico to Hawaii, from Alaska and Illinois to Texas,” said CWA President Chris Shelton, according to Vice. “Most Americans are not aware that the best ventilators are already made by General Electric within the company’s healthcare division.”

Officials said the company’s Lynn facility is crucial in supporting the U.S. military. The Lynn factory is considered essential by the Department of Homeland Security work, as it provides “mission-critical” equipment to the military. The company’s aviation division facilities continue to be used despite the layoffs.

The business is also adding employees to join manufacturing lines so it can keep facilities open 24 hours a day and doubling its capacity of ventilator production, according to officials.

“GE is working around the clock to increase production of much-needed medical equipment. GE Healthcare has already doubled ventilator production capacity, with a plan to double it again by June, in addition to partnering with Ford Motor Company to further increase ventilator production," a GE spokesperson said.

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