SCHENECTADY — General Electric Co.'s unions are calling for GE to start making ventilators in Schenectady and other sites across the country where GE has been laying off workers amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The IUE-CWA, which represents hundreds of hourly workers at GE's steam turbine and generator plant in Schenectady, said those workers could make ventilators as well due to "excess capacity" at the location due to previous layoffs amid financial difficulties at the GE Power division.

“We know that the highly trained workforce at GE, regardless of their current division, is capable of stepping up to support the needs of the American people during this global pandemic and produce desperately needed ventilators," Carl Kennebrew, president of the IUE-CWA said in a statement. "That’s why we’re calling on GE to put these men and women to work and manufacture the ventilators necessary to save lives."

GE's steam turbine plant is represented by IUE-CWA Local 301, which has its offices in downtown Schenectady.

The IUE-CWA says that ventilators could also be made at GE sites at Lynn, Mass., which like Schenectady is one of GE's most unionized locations, as well as Dallas, Texas; Salem, Va., Arkansas City, Kansas; Madisonville, Ky. along with two sites in Ohio.

The union groups say that even though GE is a major supplier of ventilators already, it does so with the help of third party manufacturers and suppliers.

"GE is one of the nation’s leading producers of ventilators, through the company’s health care division," GE's unions said in a statement. "However, GE has chosen to partner with outside corporations to help transfer the needed technology as well as their experience and their knowledge of the supply chain to source ventilator parts for new production."

GE says that the Schenectady location won't be making ventilators for now because it has enough power plant orders to keep its workers busy.

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

The spokesperson went on to say that the Schenectady "workforce is fully focused on critical power infrastructure projects that are providing electricity where it’s needed around the world. Their work is critical to supporting a strong, reliable electricity network."

Another local company, PVA in Cohoes, is just waiting for approval from the FDA to make ventilators for New York and other states as well as other countries if they order them.

Frank Hart, managing director of global sales and marketing, says once the FDA grants PVA the approval, it will be making a minimum of 100 ventilators a day after a two week ramp-up. PVA originally offered all of its supply to New York state but has since been contacted by other states and foreign governments.

"We have since also been contacted by a handful of other states and officials from Brazil, India, and China. Due to the urgent need for these devices we don’t expect to restrict availability," Hart told the Times Union. "Once approved, our intention is to make our design available for additional manufacturers to permit aggressive availability of ventilators."

PVA can handle the added capacity and has not had to make any layoffs amid the virus outbreak.

PVA says that other companies have pitched in to help with the supply chain needed to make ventilators, including Plug Power in Latham, Core Tech in Ballston Spa, Applied Robotics in Schenectady, Fort Orange Press in Albany and Documentation Strategies in Rensselaer.