IUE-CWA Members Increase Pressure on GE to Boost Ventilator Production and Enhance Safety

This week, IUE-CWA members escalated their campaign demanding that General Electric address the COVID-19 pandemic by using its expertise to manufacture ventilators at its underutilized facilities. They are calling on President Trump to use his authority under the Defense Production Act to require GE to increase production.

Protests by members at GE facilities in Dallas, Texas; Salem, Va.; Lynn, Mass.; and Schenectady, N.Y. – standing six feet apart – were widely covered in the media.

IUE-CWA members' safety demands include the installation of proper equipment for taking the temperature of every person, employee or not, before they enter a GE facility and discussions with Union officials at both the national and plant level on how to best protect workers required to remain on the job during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Our members are ready to help America during this COVID-19 crisis by making life-saving ventilators in our IUE-CWA represented facilities. These workers have the skills, and we have the space in our plants to do this work," said IUE-CWA President Carl Kennebrew. "Instead of laying workers off, GE should be stepping up to the plate with us to build the ventilators this country needs. In the plants that are up and running, GE also needs to keep workers safe on the job. They need to do more in the plants to make sure workers are protected while they are keeping this country running."

Sign the petition to ask President Trump to use his authority under the Defense Production Act to require that GE use it’s excess capacity to produce ventilators: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/ge/.

Protests by members at GE facilities in Dallas, Texas; Salem, Va.; Lynn, Mass.; and Schenectady, N.Y. – standing six feet apart – were widely covered in the media.