It was a pleasure welcoming one of your reporters as one of twelve journalists participating in the Jefferson Fellowship at our manufacturing facility in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Allow me to respond to the information attributed to GE Transportation in your recent article titled "Small town in U.S. weighs presidential pick," (The Jakarta Post, Nov. 3)
Globalization and access to free, international markets has sustained GE Transportation's growth over the past years benefiting its employees and communities in which we live and work.
We have transformed our more than 100-year-old North American rail business to a global transportation business now serving the mining, marine, drilling, stationary power and wind industries.
We experienced a downturn in the North American rail industry of more than 30 percent in 2007. At any other time in our history, we would have been forced to lay-off 1,000 workers at our manufacturing plant in Erie. We didn't.
Due to globalization and new international locomotive sales in markets like Kazakhstan and China we not only secured well-paying jobs in the United States, but added new jobs domestically and overseas.
GE Transportation is one voice in the public discourse about globalization and fair international trade. We don't assume to speak on behalf of any of the U.S. presidential candidates, nor define their course of action.
The challenges we face as a "world society" are too great for any one entity to solve. We need to continue on the path of public and private sector collaboration to make a lasting, positive difference.
STEPHAN KOLLER
Director, Communications and Public Affairs
GE Transportation
Erie, Pennsylvania
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