Workers at Some GE Factories Reject Labor Deal
10 Julio 2019 - 7:50AM
Noticias Dow Jones
By Thomas Gryta
Workers at several General Electric Co. factories voted against
a new four-year contract, surprising the conglomerate and union
leaders who had negotiated the agreement last month.
While a majority of the total votes that were cast were in
approval of the contract, local unions in Lynn, Mass., and
Schenectady, N.Y, both announced late Tuesday that their members
had voted against the deal. Under the union's rules, there was
enough of a protest vote to reject the contract.
"The legal department is looking into the legality of the
issue," said the IUE-CWA, the biggest union that led the
negotiations. the union said it would make a definitive statement
on the ratification vote as soon as possible.
The contract, negotiated by a group of 11 unions covering about
6,600 workers, sought to maintain a labor peace as the struggling
conglomerate restructures its operations. The union-represented
workers are in various industrial divisions, including aviation,
health care and power, in facilities across the country.
While union leaders endorsed the deal in Cincinnati last month,
members in some local groups were openly upset about the terms of
the deal, including higher health-care costs. The workers contend
that they have sacrificed a lot in recent years and upper
management has mismanaged the company.
In a statement late Tuesday, the IUE-CWA said 53.2% of votes
were for approval of the contract and 46.8% were against it. But
the rules that govern the union group require that votes are
counted by location, as measured by a simple majority. If a site
votes to reject the deal, that means that the vote of every local
union member is counted as a rejection. On that basis, the contract
was rejected.
A GE spokeswoman said the IUE-CWA had informed the company that
the agreement "received a majority of votes by union members, and a
definitive statement from the union regarding the ratification vote
will be forthcoming."
The contract is being watched by more than just the members of
the union because some GE nonunion sites follow the terms of the
agreement, including changes to health-care benefits, at many
sites, according to union officials and nonunion workers.
Leading up to the vote, some members campaigned against it on
social media, while GE sent numerous emails and bulletins over the
last two weeks highlighting the terms in a positive light.
On Monday, the IUE-CWA, the industrial division of the
Communications Workers of America, posted on Facebook that members
shouldn't "listen to rumors in the shop or on social media," noting
that official information would come in leaflets or meetings.
The previous agreement expired in late June but both sides
agreed to extend its term while the tentative contract was
ratified.
The agreement includes several hourly wage increases over four
years and comes as the sprawling company is selling off pieces of
itself. Four years ago, the same union talks covered about 16,500
workers, but GE has since sold its transportation division and its
appliance division.
Under Chief Executive Larry Culp, the first outsider to lead GE,
the company is also in the process of separating its oil and gas
business and a major portion of its health-care division.
Meanwhile, GE's once-reliable quarterly stock dividend has dwindled
to a penny per share.
The company incorporated its challenges in its labor
negotiations by pushing to cut health-care costs and adjust
benefits.
Write to Thomas Gryta at thomas.gryta@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 10, 2019 08:35 ET (12:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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