WINCHESTER, Va. (AP) -- General Electric says it likely will shut down its Winchester light bulb plant next summer.
The company said Thursday that about half of the 203 employees at GE Consumer & Industrial's Winchester Lamp Plant will be eligible for a full GE retirement package if the plant shuts down in July 2010.
Company officials said industrywide changes in lighting-efficiency standards will make the light bulbs produced at the plant obsolete.
Employees can offer cost-saving alternatives to closing the plant. Company officials said the ideas will be considered and a final decision on its closing will be made within 60 days.
The plant, which opened in 1975, is the last of GE's U.S. facilities dedicated to incandescent light bulb production.
