Representatives of five CBC unions – UE, IUE-CWA, UAW, IAM, and IBEW – opened bargaining today at the so-called “small table” in the final week of bargaining. The unions met with 5 GE representatives for a short period of time on Monday afternoon to discuss bargaining schedules and other minor matters.
UE negotiators on Thursday, June 11 wrapped up the first phase of national contract bargaining with GE, in which two unions, UE and IUE-CWA, have separate bargaining and are joined by other CBC unions. In the second stage of bargaining, which begins on Monday, June 15, the unions negotiate jointly with GE at a “small table” where the parties seek to hammer out an overall tentative agreement, and two “issues” subcommittee tables that deal respectively with contract language and benefits issues. Both the UE and IUE-CWA contracts expire on Sunday, June 21.
On Wednesday at UE-GE national contract negotiations, UE continued the presentation on pensions that it began on Tuesday afternoon. International Rep. Gene Elk, the union’s chief spokesperson, responded to the company’s earlier question about where the figure of 103 percent overfunding of the GE Pension Plan came from. “It came from your own Proxy Statement to stockholders,” he said, as well as the company’s 10(k) filing with the Internal Revenue Service, and the company’s most recent 5500 form filed with the government, in 2013, said the plan was funded at 108.36 percent.
At the bargaining table on Tuesday – day 6 of negotiations – UE and GE went to war over pensions. The company brought in pension administrator Mike Gorman and a team of five others to present GE’s view of the status of the GE Pension Plan (GEPP) and sing the praises of the Retirement Savings Plan (RSP), the 401(k)-type plan which is the only retirement program GE is offering to new employees hired on or after January 1, 2012.
In the wake of a four-hour work stoppage on Friday by members of UE Local 506 on all three shifts at the big Erie GE plant, bargaining resumed on Monday with discussions of layoffs, severance benefits, seniority, and anti-discrimination language.
President Scott Slawson of Local 506 explained Friday’s walkout. “Our members exercised their contractual right to strike on grievances due to work being farmed out while some workers are still on layoff. It was an amazing show of solidarity by our membership in support of our members who are laid off.”
UE-GE negotiations continued on Friday, June 5, with the company making a presentation on retiree health insurance that telegraphed its intentions, even as GE representatives repeatedly stated that they were making no proposal “at this time.”
The third day of national contract bargaining between UE and GE dealt with wages, life insurance, and the union’s presentation of its demands on one of the major issues, job security. The company undermined its own credibility, said UE negotiators, with the way it later dismissed the promises it made in 2011, and with its conduct in transferring union work out of the Erie and Fort Edward plants.
National contract negotiations began Tuesday in New York City between UE and General Electric. Following opening statements that presented the two sides’ very different goals, the company and union offered contradictory views of the current health plan GE imposed in 2011. The union described GE Health Benefits (GEHB) as “paying more for less healthcare.”
In his closing remarks on the opening of national bargaining in May, 2011, UE’s General President John Hovis stated; “Frankly, this is the most apprehension I felt since I first became personally involved in these negotiations back in the 1980’s.” He continued; “I worry about GE “overreaching” at a critical time in GE’s rebound