March UE 506 News

LAYOFF AND OUTSOURCING UPDATE

Members! Dust off your "It’s About Jobs" buttons or pick up one of the new "GE worker-Endangered Species" shirts because the Company’s going ahead with their first wave of volume-related layoffs later this month. Attempting to reduce the 700 targeted layoffs, the Officers and E-Board are scrutinizing the Company’s numbers and the Job Preservation Committee is pursuing potential work that could be brought into the Plant.

Meanwhile, negotiations over the 225 jobs identified for outsourcing has continued on a steady course, no real breakthroughs have developed, however the Officers have acquired enough information to begin framing proposals for some of the affected areas.

The final proposals will be presented by the Officers and discussed with the Company UR staff. Here again, the Job Preservation Committee members will be assisting the negotiation process by actively working in their respective Divisions, meeting with Company appointed financial and production managers and disseminating that information back to the Officers. With the Committee’s help, the Officers expect to present a number of solid, indisputable arguments for keeping the outsourced work in the Plant.

As you will be able to see, the Local is utilizing all means available, primarily to limit the job loss in the Plant but also to help cushion the impact on the members who will inevitably lose their jobs due to lack of orders, despite the Union’s best efforts. Those measures include working with the National UE office, connecting with community political leaders and exploring benefits and services available through established Erie area social service agencies. Additionally, we will continue to help facilitate Special Early Retirement Options (SEROs) through education and make clear the GE benefits available to those who end up permanently laid off.

ARTICLE XXII SUBCONTRACTING LANGUAGE UPHELD

2000-2003 National Contract language, effectively proposed by the UE, became a point of contention early in the negotiations to save the 225 jobs GE intends on outsourcing. The language is on page 87 of the contract and it refers (in bold) to our right, in the case of transfers of non-production work or subcontracting that would directly cause a decrease of more than 50 represented employees performing such work, the notice period will be (6) months (rather than 60 days).

Initially, the Company took the position that "such work" was narrowly interpreted to mean all workers doing a specific type of work. The Union argued that the true intent of the language considered "such work" to mean that a total of 50 non-production jobs, regardless of the diversity, constituted a 6 month notice. After a through discussion at the local table, the Company referred the matter to GE Corporate Relations for an opinion. After a review of the Contract Negotiation minutes, Corporate sent word back that indeed the notice period should be extended to 6 months. Therefore, the earliest Central Service and Warehouse jobs can be transferred or subcontracted will be July 25, 2002. Note: This language does not apply to non-production layoffs identified for volume-reductions.

Kitchen’s Kabinet, March 2002

Year to date, grievance activity is up quite a bit from last year because each Steward has circulated a complaint concerning the announced reductions. In fact, since the announcement, over one hundred grievances have been submitted to Step 2 regarding the Union’s contention that Article XXIII was clearly violated.

On January 25^th a Step 2 meeting was held. During that meeting, the Grievance Committee emphasized cases having a connection to the planned reductions. The committee also displayed their absolute commitment to the "Job Security" issue. A Step #3 meeting was held on February 21^st in Pittsburgh, and again the central issue was ‘Job Security".

Make no mistake, the Union has been instrumental in developing language in the National Agreement on job and income security. We are willing to give this language an opportunity to work and we believe that the company, at most levels, is as well. However, we are not so naïve as to believe there aren’t some who take comfort in this announcement.

The Local is not out looking for a fight over the reductions, if we were, we would not have expended so much effort developing language that deals with these types of reductions, but we will not run from a fight either. At the end of the day everybody better be able to look back and feel that they, individually and collectively, have done what they could to reach a resolution both sides can feel comfortable with.

Let’s talk about the Local Layoff and Recall procedure. Questions have been raised regarding the process. First of all there can be many variables, so it would be impossible to cover each one. Our advice to anyone who is impacted is simply this: Before you make any decisions on accepting or refusing a job, find your Union representative and review your options. There are several basic rules you should understand about the process.

Every employee has a six digit number for the job they’re on. The terms Class and Category are used in the layoff and recall procedure and refer to the first four numbers as a Category (type of job) and the last two numbers as a Class (skill level). In piecework there are four classes. Class I (I20), Class II (I17), Class III (I14), and Class IV (I11). For daywork each Code is considered a Class.

Caution: If you refuse placement, on a legitimate job offer, you may loose recall or worse be terminated. When in doubt (before you decide) contact your Union Representative.

The Local Layoff and Recall Procedure is six pages in length and we will not attempt to print the entire document here however in future articles we will explain other features of the layoff and recall procedure.

On Tuesday, February 19, 2002, the Local 506 Officers met with the two recently elected Erie City and County leaders, Mayor Rick Filippi and County executive Rick Schenker. The meeting was held at the Union Hall. At the center of the meeting was GE’s plan to layoff 925 workers.

Primarily set up as an information session, the meeting did delve in to the heart of the matter. The Officers presented information showing GE’s three-decade history of downsizing through subcontracting, outsourcing, product line moves and automation. Thoroughly convinced GE will continue that trend, the Officers explained that enough is enough and asked the two executives to enlist themselves in the struggle to keep GE jobs in the Erie GE Plant.

At the time of our meeting, neither executive had any in depth discussion with GE management over the matter but they didn’t seem averse to doing so. In fact, Mayor Filippi said that he would pursue a meeting with the GE.

The Officers felt the meeting was a success in that it enlightened the two government officials as to the dire straits our membership, and the community, is in.

On Friday, February 22, 2002, the Local 506 Officers met with representatives from the Erie Career link to learn about the PA State job placement and training programs. The Career Link, located at 1309 French Street, offers help to laid off workers and to those about to be laid off. A Rapid Response Unit is available to meet with workers to access their skills and, if compatible jobs are open in the six-county area, they will help secure that work. If enrolled with the Career Link, dislocated workers are workers about to be dislocated will go through the "CORE Services" first, which includes job search and placement assistance and other supportive services. After participating in the CORE services, "Intensive Services" are offered with case management and individual counseling. A worker can move into the "Training Services" after participating in at least one intensive service.

Editors note: These programs look like they far exceed any early attempts to place or train laid off workers

The officers also met with Department of Labor representatives from Harrisburg on February 21, 2002 to review the Benefits available and the filing procedure under the Trade Readjustment Act which can apply if jobs are lost due to imports. Concerning both the Career Link and the TRA benefits, the officers will be meeting further with the State agencies and the Company to ensure that every affected worker will know what benefits are available and how to acquire them.