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GE Pact Goes to Members for Ratification
A tentative national agreement between IUE-CWA and General Electric, yielding a 16.5 percent average wage increase over four years along with pension improvements and other gains, was approved by delegates to the IUE-CWA GE Conference Board on June 18 and sent to members with their recommendation for approval. A ratification vote by the nearly 14,000 affected members is to be completed by June 24.
Calling it a "breakthrough settlement," IUE-CWA President Ed 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 won the richest settlement ever at $1.7 billion," said IUE-CWA GE Conference Board Chairman Art Smith.
IUE-CWA 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. Co-pays are frozen for the life of the agreement.
GE's 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 in these 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 four-year settlement provides that small medical premium increases 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 increases and eight cost-of-living adjustments, along with a skilled trades adjustment, are expected to increase pay for the average employee by 16.5 percent over the term of the contract. Workers will receive a general wage increase of 3 percent immediately, 2.5 percent in both 2004 and 2005, and 3 percent in 2006 and the cost-of-living formula 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 over the contract term.
Union members will also have special early retirement opportunities that are guaranteed for union members only. Two early retirement windows will allow 600 union-represented employees to retire early in the fall of 2003 and 420 in fall 2005-a 67 percent increase in early retirement opportunities over the last contract.
For the first time ever, the company agreed to bargain on behalf of retirees. Union 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 ever 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.
Calling it a "breakthrough settlement," IUE-CWA President Ed 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 won the richest settlement ever at $1.7 billion," said IUE-CWA GE Conference Board Chairman Art Smith.
IUE-CWA 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. Co-pays are frozen for the life of the agreement.
GE's 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 in these 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 four-year settlement provides that small medical premium increases 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 increases and eight cost-of-living adjustments, along with a skilled trades adjustment, are expected to increase pay for the average employee by 16.5 percent over the term of the contract. Workers will receive a general wage increase of 3 percent immediately, 2.5 percent in both 2004 and 2005, and 3 percent in 2006 and the cost-of-living formula 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 over the contract term.
Union members will also have special early retirement opportunities that are guaranteed for union members only. Two early retirement windows will allow 600 union-represented employees to retire early in the fall of 2003 and 420 in fall 2005-a 67 percent increase in early retirement opportunities over the last contract.
For the first time ever, the company agreed to bargain on behalf of retirees. Union 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 ever 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.