June 24, 2013
Local 506 today distributed to members a bulletin summarizing the final session of the 60-day "decision bargaining" with GE over its plan for movement of work out of Erie. (Download the Local 506 bulletin by clicking the link at the bottom of this page.)
Headlined "Our Fight to Save 950 Jobs Continues Despite GE’s Rejection of UE’s Offer", the flyler describes the session that went until midnight on Saturday, June 22, in which the company rejected union proposals which would have brought GE $26 million in savings while keeping the work in Erie, to be performed by the highly-productive UE workforce. The union report also lists the takeaways that GE was demanding in its supposedly "sweetened" final proposal.
- Remove 540 Jobs from Erie and build 350 locomotives per year in Texas
- Retain 410 jobs, but those jobs are subject to “volume” reductions
- Freeze wages and cost-of-living in both 2013 and 2014
- Establish a two-tier wage system with new low rates dictated by GE for new hires
- Cut Piece Work Rates
- In 2015, eliminate red-circle wage guarantee for former pieceworkers transferred to lean manufacturing
- Mandatory Overtime for all of us
- Severe restrictions on seniority and job bidding
- Establish new tough rules on taking vacations, personal time, and holidays
- Establish absenteeism guidelines which violate our National Agreement
- Withdraw all pending and future NLRB charges, legal challenges, and grievances over GE’s continuing work transfer.
- The officers and executive board plan discussion over the next few days and are "evaluating our next moves including pursuing existing and new NLRB charges, additional legal challenges,and all possible labor actions."