GE: 10,000 applications for 90 factory jobs
Source: courier-journal By: Jere Downs
Job seekers filed 10,000 applications over three days with General Electric
for 90 openings paying about $27,000 a year building washing machines, General Electric spokeswoman Kim Freeman said Thursday.
GE advertised the jobs Sunday, and began accepting applications and resumes solely via a company website Monday. Wednesday was the deadline, she said.
GE announced last week it would hire additional workers in a new second shift later this fall to assemble Energy Star washing machines in Building 1 at the historic Louisville complex.
Union president Jerry Carney, of IUE-CWA Local 761, representing Appliance Park workers, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
The hourly wage for the jobs is $13, but the same positions paid a starting wage of about $19 per hour just four years ago, Freeman added, before GE and its largest union first agreed to wage cuts negotiated to prevent closure of Appliance Park.
“People still value these jobs,” Freeman said.
The unemployment rate in Jefferson County was 10.6 percent in August, the most recent data available. Statewide, Kentucky’s rate was 11.1 percent and Indiana’s was 9.9 percent.
Promised roughly 100 additional jobs last May, Local 761 members agreed to freeze current wages until 2011 and approved the new, lower pay scale for new hires.
GE employs roughly 2,100 hourly and 2,000 white collar workers at Appliance Park. Now, about 440 workers labor on the first shift on washing machines in Building 1.
Reporter Jere Downs can be reached at (502) 582-4669.
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