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Breakthrough Settlement at General Electric 'Richest Ever'
IUE-CWA members have voted overwhelmingly to approve a four-year national agreement with General Electric that will raise wages by an average of 16.5 percent, along with pension improvements and other gains.
IUE-CWA President Ed Fire said the new pact, worth $1.7 billion, "is the richest package ever in the history of collective bargaining with GE. "
Calling it a "breakthrough settlement," Fire said the pact meets the union's goals of "safeguarding affordable health insurance and substantially increasing pensions for our members."
"Despite a backdrop of rocketing health care costs and tough economic times, union negotiators held the line against health care cost-shifting, with GE paying 82 percent and union members paying only 18 percent - as they do today - by the contract's end," said IUE-CWA GE Conference Board Chairman Art Smith. "Co-pays are frozen for the life of the agreement."
GE's 14,000 IUE-CWA workers struck Jan. 14-15 to protest health care cost shifting then imposed by the company and to fire a warning shot that they would not tolerate the increased cost-shifting GE said it would demand during contract talks.
"The two-day strike drew a line in the sand that GE could not cross," Fire said. "Our members won this settlement through their sacrifice on the picket line on those two bitterly cold days in the dead of winter."
Responding to IUE-CWA's proposal, GE agreed to work with the union on dealing with the national health care crisis by joining the National Coalition on Health Care after contract ratification.
The settlement provides that small increases in medical premiums for members and their families will be more than offset by a wage and cost-of-living package considerably higher than other recent national contract settlements.
Four general wage hikes and eight cost-of-living adjustments, along with a skilled trades adjustment, are expected to raise pay for the average employee by 16.5 percent over the term of the contract. Workers will receive a general raise of 3 percent immediately, 2.5 percent in both 2004 and 2005, and 3 percent in 2006. The cost-of-living formula also was improved.
The typical union worker with a family of four in the Health Care Preferred plan will end up with $15,272 more in net pay over the term of the agreement.
Members will receive substantially higher pensions with the guaranteed tables increasing from $40 to $60 per month per year of service in the top rate - a 50 percent jump. Overall, pension improvements will increase benefits for long-service employees by 30 to 35 percent.
Union members will also have special early retirement opportunities. Six hundred union-represented workers will be able to retire early in the fall of 2003 and another 420 in fall 2005 - a 67 percent increase in early retirement opportunities over the last contract.
For the first time, the company responded to negotiators' pleas on behalf of retirees. Retirees will receive an additional (13th) check in December 2003 for their usual monthly amount. The payout will total $142 million. The 2003 round of bargaining also marked first-time participation by WAGE (Working at GE) Committee members.
The company agreed to continue giving one year's notice of intention to close any facility and signed a letter that strengthens the code of conduct it will adhere to in organizing campaigns.
IUE-CWA locals organized massive demonstrations in support of bargaining. About 2,000 members from 19 GE locations turned out for a rally in Louisville, Ky., May 17, two days before talks opened.
Fire, Smith, IUE-CWA District 7 President Mike Bindas and CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen laid out the issues for them at Local 83761's union hall near GE's Appliance Park, and members pledged their willingness to strike if necessary.
Another 3,000 members and their supporters attended a rally in Lynn, Mass., hosted by IUE-CWA Local 81201 on June 7, eight days prior to the settlement. Locals from Jonesboro, Ark., Struthers, Kan., Youngstown and Cleveland Ohio and elsewhere contributed to the throng.
Members from Louisville laid a wreathe at the plant gates honoring Michelle Rodgers, a Local 83761 member and mother of three who was struck and killed by a police car during the January strike.
IUE-CWA President Ed Fire said the new pact, worth $1.7 billion, "is the richest package ever in the history of collective bargaining with GE. "
Calling it a "breakthrough settlement," Fire said the pact meets the union's goals of "safeguarding affordable health insurance and substantially increasing pensions for our members."
"Despite a backdrop of rocketing health care costs and tough economic times, union negotiators held the line against health care cost-shifting, with GE paying 82 percent and union members paying only 18 percent - as they do today - by the contract's end," said IUE-CWA GE Conference Board Chairman Art Smith. "Co-pays are frozen for the life of the agreement."
GE's 14,000 IUE-CWA workers struck Jan. 14-15 to protest health care cost shifting then imposed by the company and to fire a warning shot that they would not tolerate the increased cost-shifting GE said it would demand during contract talks.
"The two-day strike drew a line in the sand that GE could not cross," Fire said. "Our members won this settlement through their sacrifice on the picket line on those two bitterly cold days in the dead of winter."
Responding to IUE-CWA's proposal, GE agreed to work with the union on dealing with the national health care crisis by joining the National Coalition on Health Care after contract ratification.
The settlement provides that small increases in medical premiums for members and their families will be more than offset by a wage and cost-of-living package considerably higher than other recent national contract settlements.
Four general wage hikes and eight cost-of-living adjustments, along with a skilled trades adjustment, are expected to raise pay for the average employee by 16.5 percent over the term of the contract. Workers will receive a general raise of 3 percent immediately, 2.5 percent in both 2004 and 2005, and 3 percent in 2006. The cost-of-living formula also was improved.
The typical union worker with a family of four in the Health Care Preferred plan will end up with $15,272 more in net pay over the term of the agreement.
Members will receive substantially higher pensions with the guaranteed tables increasing from $40 to $60 per month per year of service in the top rate - a 50 percent jump. Overall, pension improvements will increase benefits for long-service employees by 30 to 35 percent.
Union members will also have special early retirement opportunities. Six hundred union-represented workers will be able to retire early in the fall of 2003 and another 420 in fall 2005 - a 67 percent increase in early retirement opportunities over the last contract.
For the first time, the company responded to negotiators' pleas on behalf of retirees. Retirees will receive an additional (13th) check in December 2003 for their usual monthly amount. The payout will total $142 million. The 2003 round of bargaining also marked first-time participation by WAGE (Working at GE) Committee members.
The company agreed to continue giving one year's notice of intention to close any facility and signed a letter that strengthens the code of conduct it will adhere to in organizing campaigns.
IUE-CWA locals organized massive demonstrations in support of bargaining. About 2,000 members from 19 GE locations turned out for a rally in Louisville, Ky., May 17, two days before talks opened.
Fire, Smith, IUE-CWA District 7 President Mike Bindas and CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen laid out the issues for them at Local 83761's union hall near GE's Appliance Park, and members pledged their willingness to strike if necessary.
Another 3,000 members and their supporters attended a rally in Lynn, Mass., hosted by IUE-CWA Local 81201 on June 7, eight days prior to the settlement. Locals from Jonesboro, Ark., Struthers, Kan., Youngstown and Cleveland Ohio and elsewhere contributed to the throng.
Members from Louisville laid a wreathe at the plant gates honoring Michelle Rodgers, a Local 83761 member and mother of three who was struck and killed by a police car during the January strike.