Are workers at General Electric headed for a strike?
The current contract expires on Sunday and negotiations which have been taking place all month in Cincinnati have broken down.
The Union Coordinating Bargaining Committee has suspended negotiations and they say they won't return to the bargaining table until GE has a decent proposal to offer. Union leaders say it has been 50 years since a contract strike at General Electric but they say they have not forgotten how to fight for their rights. The key issues in the dispute are over wages, overtime, health benefits and retiree benefits.
The website geworkersunited.org reports that the talks began on June 2nd in Cincinnati and had been taking place every day since. An update to union members says the talks broke down yesterday:
" At this point, the Company has agreed to some minor improvements to the contract but the key issues of wages, overtime, health benefits
and retirement have not yet been agreed upon. The parties met today and the Company provided an amended Overtime offer and a
proposed wage package. Both are entirely unacceptable to the CBC Unions and our members."
The union leader in charge of the bargaining committee, IUE-CWA Conference Board Chairman Jerry Carney says “We are prepared to work around the clock with GE to negotiate a decent contract. But GE has to know that the terms it put on the table will lead to only one result – a general strike of all GE employees."