Despite Monday's announcement that G.E. is cutting its stock dividend and spinning off some businesses, the company says it remains committed to its plans to move its headquarters to Boston.
Renovations are underway at two brick buildings along South Boston's waterfront, which the company says will be ready in the first half of 2019. G.E. had already postponed plans to build an additional headquarters building on the site until those renovations are done. A company spokesperson says that decision remain unchanged.
“Earlier this year, G.E. announced plans to reduce $1 [billion] in cost in 2017 and $2 [billion] in cost by the end of 2018," a company spokesperson said in a statement. "As we have said, all aspects of the company are being evaluated for cost efficiencies, and that includes job reductions."
The company says those layoffs are corporate, and will have a limited impact on Boston-area employees.
G.E. announced it will refocus around three business units: aviation, health care and power. That's likely good news for about three thousand workers at G.E.'s Aviation facility in Lynn who design, manufacture and assemble jet engines.
"Right now, 300,000 people, as we're here, are in the sky, sitting in planes powered by G.E. engines," CEO John Flannery told employees Monday. "That's the size of the city of Pittsburgh,"
A company spokesman said the new cutbacks will not change or impact workers in Lynn.
An aerospace report shows G.E. Aviation was the industry’s most profitable company in 2016, making more than $6 billion.
The president of the Lynn aviation facility’s union tells WGBH News that they’ve hired more than 200 people in the last year, and they’re expecting more investment in machines and training going forward.
