UE NEWS Updates

In a stunning victory for UE members who work for Aramark, an arbitrator issued an Opinion and Award on January 14 that protected the employees’ bargained-for right to paid sick leave without being assessed no-fault attendance points for using them.

Since at least 2003, Aramark has enforced a no-fault attendance policy for the plant that was based on a point system. Under the policy, if employees called in sick they were assessed points and docked pay. Two points were assessed for a one day absence. Workers who accumulated eight points during a 12-week period were fired.

An economic impact study released today by UE Local 506 on Thursday, February 28, shows that the negative economic impact of the wage reductions demanded by Wabtec in Erie, PA would total about the same amount as Wabtec Chief Executive Officer Raymond Betler’s corporate merger bonus package.

1700 members of UE Locals 506 and 618 went on strike today to preserve decent wages and working conditions at the GE Transportation locomotive plant. Their new employer, Wabtec, took over the business on Monday and imposed "terms and conditions" that include mandatory overtime and arbitrary schedules, wage reductions of up to 38 percent for recalled and newly-hired workers, and the right to use temporary workers for up to 20 percent of the work in the plant.

When the town of Greenfield entered negotiations with UE Local 274, which represents the town clerical and library workers, their agenda was clear: more rights for bosses, fewer rights for workers. Management wanted to expand the management’s rights clause while removing all non-discrimination language from the contract, leaving any issue of discrimination up to state law.