In a bulletin issued to members June 7, Local 506’s bargaining committee wrote: “After three meetings last week and two bargaining sessions this week (June 3 and 4), we regret having to inform you that there has been no real progress in our efforts to save the 950 jobs. At every bargaining session, your officers and the national union have repeatedly asked the Company for proposals to save jobs. As of yesterday (June 4), GE made no proposals and has not offered any concrete ideas to save even one job.”
(Click on the link below to download the bulletin as a PDF file.)
Rather than offer proposals to keep jobs in Erie, the company has made proposals to change work rules, which it says will make the plant “more efficient.” But it offers no retention of jobs if it gets its way on issues such as attendance, parking rules, use of cell phones or the issuance of employee badges. And the company rejected UE’s proposal to extend bargaining to July 1. (The contract requires 60 days of bargaining over a job transfer decision, and despite the lack of any substantive bargaining by GE, that timeline will soon expire.)
Meanwhile Local 506’s workplace and community campaign to “Keep It Made in Erie” continues, as does the legal action brought against UE before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by UE’s legal department in Pittsburgh, charging GE with bad-faith bargaining and other illegal behaviour.
