GENERAL Electric (GE) bosses are considering a proposal to keep its Technology Drive Power Conversion site open.
In November, GE announced plans to cease manufacturing at the 250-employee site and move production to a plant in Nancy, France by the end this year.
A consultation on the plan has now extended beyond the 90-day minimum period while managers consider a counter-proposal from employee representatives that would allow the site to stay open.
Unite the Union regional officer Zoe Mayou said: “The company need one to two weeks to study this and run some financial models to see how it would work – therefore consultation remains open for the time being.”
A GE spokeswoman confirmed: “We are still in the consultation process and no decision has been made at this time.”
No details of the counter-proposal have been revealed.
During a recent visit to the site, Shadow Defence Minister Nia Griffith said its manufacturing capability, part of the Royal Navy’s procurement supply chain, was ‘strategically significant’.
She said: “I’m impressed by the quality of the engineering and manufacturing that happens here.
“It’s a unique facility and an essential part of the UK’s defence procurement. It’s essential that we maintain this sovereign capability.”
![](https://bmvision.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Nia-Griffith-and-Debbie-Bannigan-visit-to-GE-380x198.jpg)
Steve Kerr, Unite representative and member of the GE European Works Council, added: “It’s crucial to the sovereign capability and freedom of action that is required by the Royal Navy. Only with a sound industrial policy will this nation prosper.”
Debbie Bannigan, Labour’s local Parliamentary candidate, said engineering was part of Rugby’s heritage and should be its future too.
She said: “This capability is unique and essential to our defence industry. Some decisions can be left to the marketplace but some – like this one – are far too important for that.”
The site’s future was first thrown into doubt last June, when a £1.3billion plan to build the world’s first tidal power lagoon in Swansea Bay – for which GE in Rugby was to supply the turbines – was thrown out by the government.