UE-GE Locals Prepare For National Strike Action

Pittsburgh

(Note: Complete Resolution Text Follows Story)

UE members who are General Electric workers are preparing to defend their medical insurance program with the union’s first national strike action against that company in more than 30 years.

Delegates representing UE-GE local unions from across the country, meeting here Dec. 13 as the UE-GE Conference Board, resolved unanimously to take national strike action against General Electric "some time after the first of the year." Efforts will be made to coordinate UE strike action with other unions in the CBC, a bargaining coalition of GE unions.

UE strikes will be a response to GE’s plans to implement co-payment increases to its Health Care Preferred (HCP) managed care plan effective Jan. 1, and announced intention to engage in further cost-shifting in national contract negotiations in June. "Even by GE standards this latest assault is a particularly outrageous example of corporate greed. It also demands a response from us beyond mere words," said the UE-GE local union leaders in their resolution.

The GE workers rejected company claims that the changes are required for "competitiveness." Instead, they say, "the HCP increases simply mean that the Company will each year dump about $30 million in additional medical costs onto the backs of GE workers and pre-65 retirees.

LAYOFFS, PROFITS

"Moreover, GE’s changes to HCP come at a time when many thousands of GE workers nationwide are laid off or under threat of layoff and particularly vulnerable to increased medical bills. It comes at a time when GE retirees, living on fixed incomes, have been without a pension increase for nearly three years, and in some cases longer. And finally, it comes at a time when GE has reported record third-quarter profits and company CEO Immelt has predicted double-digit profit increases in 11 of GE’s 13 major businesses next year."

The strike action, the UE-GE Conference Board said, is not a step taken lightly, "but we are convinced that it is a necessary one not only in response to the HCP changes, but also in the longer run to help safeguard all of our medical insurance programs that we have worked so hard to establish and improve over many years."

UE’s last national job action at GE was the 101-day strike in 1969-70.

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Complete Text of Conference Board Resolution:

RESOLUTION OF THE UE-GE CONFERENCE BOARD

FOR NATIONAL STRIKE ACTION AGAINST GE

CONCERNING HCP CO-PAY INCREASES

Last June, UE-GE Conference Board delegates voted unanimously to reject General Electric’s proposed co-pay increases to its Health Care Preferred (HCP) medical insurance plan. Negotiations held since then resulted in only minor modifications to GE’s original proposal. The Company has announced its intention to implement the HCP increases effective on January 1, 2003, and even more ominously, to seek substantial additional cost shifting in National Contract negotiations next June.

GE’s claims notwithstanding, this unprecedented mid-contract attack on our medical insurance has nothing to do with “competitiveness”. Rather the HCP increases simply mean that the Company will each year dump about $30 Million in additional medical costs onto the backs of GE workers and pre-65 retirees.

Moreover, GE’s changes to HCP comes at a time when many thousands of GE workers nationwide are laid off or under the threat of layoff and particularly vulnerable to increased medical bills. It comes at a time when GE retirees, living on fixed incomes, have been without a pension increase for nearly three years, and in some cases longer. And finally, it comes at a time when GE has reported record third quarter profits and company CEO Immelt has predicted double digit profit increases in 11 of GE’s 13 major businesses next year.

In short, even by GE standards, this latest assault is a particularly outrageous example of corporate greed. It also demands a response from us beyond mere words.

Accordingly, the UE-GE Conference Board, comprised of delegates from UE-GE Local unions across the country, resolves to take national strike action against General Electric some time after the first of the year. We urge all locals to undertake necessary strike preparations, and further urge those locals which have not yet done so, to secure strike authorization from their members as soon as possible. We will seek insofar as is possible, to coordinate our strike action with those of other CBC unions so as to maximize the impact of our collective action.

We do not take this step lightly, but we are convinced that it is a necessary one not only in response to the HCP changes, but also in the longer run to help safeguard all of our medical insurance programs that we have worked so hard to establish and improve over many years.