"I think the challenge with Immelt, and I'm just wondering about the politics of this too, because you have the industrial heartland which is still a battleground, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin. They have all been devastated by manufacturing job loss, and in Jeff Immelt you have a CEO who has supported all of the policies that have led to that devastation," said Scott Paul, the executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing. "I think the president has a hard time convincing the American people that having an outsourcing CEO as your key adviser on jobs and competitiveness,"
In the eyes of some labor interests, G.E. also embodies the job-outsourcing phenomenon. And Immelt's ascension to a post that has the ear of the president --
The optics of the Immelt appointment aren't necessarily that clear. While the G.E. chief executive has overseen the shipping of U.S. jobs overseas, his tone and stated philosophy have shifted in recent years. "In some areas," he said during a much-remarked-upon June 2009 speech in Detroit, "we have outsourced too much."
What has followed, a G.E. spokeswoman said, has been a concerted effort to build operational roots in America, with the company "in-sourcing jobs in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio and many other states."