"On January 1st thousands of General Electric retirees, employees and dependents found out they could no longer use the retiree health plans they received upon retirement from the company. GE justified the change by saying it was on trend with what other large corporations have in place and it will also save the company $3.3 billion. Today's announcement that the company is now eliminating 225 local jobs in Schenectady adds insult to injury," said Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara.

"While the company continues to show profits and top executives are still making enormous salaries, the layoffs announced today exclusively affect blue collar hourly workers. In fact, former CEO, Jeffery Emmelt, exited the company with benefits and deferred shares worth about $100 million and new CEO, John Flannery, now draws a salary that's 157 times higher than that of the company's median employee. This latest move by GE will hurt working families in our community and amounts to nothing more than corporate greed," Santabarbara added.

"Over the years this community has shown immense dedication to the company and unfortunately GE has not shown that same dedication to our community. We need to accept the fact that this company does not have the best interests of this community in mind when making decisions. GE may be an industry leader in many aspects - except when it comes to being a good corporate citizen," Santabarbara said.