GE to Close Ohio Bulb Plants, Including Logan

03/12/2022

380105898_aa3878171c_k — photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/programwitch/

LOGAN – GE Lighting started changing how they do business after a recent company acquirement from Savant Systems, in May of 2020.

The company Savant Systems, a provider of internet-connected LED lighting to upmarket homes said after purchasing the company would focus more on connectivity.

Ohio plants in Bucyrus and Logan build fluorescent and halogen bulbs or manufacture the glass that was popular ten years ago but has slowly declined in popularity with LED bulb technology, and according to the company that is one of the reasons for the closure of these two plants.

Fluorescent and halogen bulbs may even be pushed off the market by government due to them being less efficient than LED>

“Linear fluorescent lamps continue to experience a double-digit decline in demand year over year for the last five years across the lighting industry,” the spokesperson said. “Energy-efficient halogen has already been regulated off the market by California and Nevada, and proposed [Department of Energy] regulation will soon eliminate its manufacture and sales across the U.S.”

Both Logan and Bucyrus are union shops, and a total of 225 people could be without a job soon.

A question arose, why couldn’t these factories just create LED, well they did for a short time, but due to legislation and components almost all LEDs are created outside of the US.

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) posted to the news of the plant closings in the following statement: “Once again, we are witnessing the result of decades of misguided tax and trade policies that work against Ohio workers and companies that want to manufacture in the U.S. I have been fighting alongside the men and women of GE-Savant for years, and I won’t stop fighting for them and their community now. This announcement should serve as a wake-up call – innovation happens on the shop room floor, and when 99% of energy efficient light bulbs are made in China, it is impossible for us to compete. We need to make more things in America – not cede market share in the products of the future to China.”