Oct. 4 (Bloomberg) -- General Electric Co., founded by incandescent bulb developer Thomas Edison, plans to cut about 1,400 jobs at its lighting division as the company closes plants in the U.S. and Brazil amid a consumer shift to more energy- efficient fluorescent lamps.

About 425 jobs will be eliminated in Ohio, where GE will shut six of its 26 U.S. lighting factories, according to spokeswoman Kim Freeman. The company also will close a plant in Rio de Janeiro, eliminating 900 jobs and ceasing all lighting operations there. Some work being done in Mexico and the U.S. will be transferred to unspecified GE locations, affecting 80 additional employees.

Sales of traditional bulbs are slowing by at least 10 percent a year, said James Campbell, who oversees the GE Consumer and Industrial unit. The rate of decline will accelerate, while revenue from technology such as compact fluorescent lighting is up by a ``very strong double-digit'' percentage, he said. Congress is considering legislation that may do away with incandescent lights.

``It's really consumer buying patterns,'' Campbell said in an interview today. ``We're really trying to be aggressive here and take the lead, restructuring the plants and right-sizing ourselves to leverage what we see in the market.''

General Electric will pay for the job cuts and plant closings from the $500 million in proceeds tapped for restructuring after Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt sold the plastics unit in August. Campbell didn't disclose the cost of the lighting restructuring. Immelt is shedding slower-growing businesses including the sub-prime mortgage unit to help boost profit growth.

$200 Million Investment

The job cuts account for about 5.6 percent of GE's 25,000 lighting employees worldwide and will take place over about three years, Campbell said. In the U.S., GE has about 7,000 lighting employees. The company had 319,000 employees at the end of last year.

The six Ohio plants being closed are in Austintown, Conneaut, Euclid, Niles and Willoughby. Eight other factories, a distribution center, an LED unit and headquarters in Nela Park will remain, with more than 2,700 employees, Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE said in a statement. By contract, the company must negotiate the changes in the U.S. with the employees' unions.

GE already has cut about 3,000 jobs at the lighting division in the past year and invested $200 million in newer technologies in the past four years, Campbell said. That signals a commitment to invest in, and not sell, the unit, he said.

Lighting, part of the consumer and industrial unit, is forecast to have about $3 billion in sales this year, GE said. The parent company is projected to have about $172 billion in sales, the average estimate of 15 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Bulb Ban

GE and competitors Royal Philips Electronics NV and Siemens AG said last month they support a bill introduced by Senator Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat, that would phase out incandescent light bulbs by 2014 and replace them with light- emitting diodes, or LEDs, halogen bulbs, compact fluorescent lamps, or CFLs, and higher efficiency lights. A similar bill in the House would require a further improvement by 2020.

General Electric rose 15 cents to $41.70 at 4:21 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have climbed 16 percent in the past year.

To contact the reporters on this story: Rachel Layne in Boston at rlayne@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 4, 2007 17:53 EDT