YOUNGSTOWN GE union authorizes strike for next year

GE unions are upset over a plan to raise health insurance co-payments.
THE VINDICATOR, YOUNGSTOWN
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- A union representing 15,000 General Electric workers, including nearly 600 in the Mahoning Valley, has authorized a strike next year.
The union is upset over a GE plan to raise health insurance co-payments.
Delegates to the conference board of the International Union of Electrical Workers voted Friday to give union leadership the ability to call a nationwide strike. No vote of union membership would be needed.
The current labor contract expires June 15, but it gives GE the right to change insurance co-payments before that date and the union the ability to strike if it doesn't like the changes.
Increases
Gary Sheffer, a spokesman for Connecticut-based GE, said the company proposed increases in June, agreed to some changes after discussions with the union and announced the final amounts of the increases in August.
The changes take effect Jan. 1 and apply to employees using the Health Care Preferred plan, which is about 70 percent of workers. Other plans are not affected.
Lauren Asplen, an IUE spokeswoman, said the amounts of the increases vary based on the type of services. Examples of the new co-payments are: visits to specialist physicians, $25, up $10; emergency room visits, $50, up $20; and prescriptions filled at pharmacies, $16, up $4.
Asplen said union officials are asking GE to postpone the increases and bring them up in negotiations for the next national contract. GE remains a profitable company and doesn't need to pass along these costs to employees, she said.
Sheffer said, however, that the company has shielded employees from increases throughout the contract but was unable to do it any longer because of large cost increases this year.
The increases also cover GE retirees who receive health care insurance until they are eligible for Medicaid. The IUE represents about 35,000 retirees.
Local workers
The union represents workers at a plant in Warren, which makes specialty lights, and Austintown, which makes light bulb filaments.
About 200 workers at a GE glass-making plant in Niles are represented by the United Electrical Workers.
Leadership of that union issued a statement opposing the increases in June, said Stephen Tormey, a union spokesman.
Strike authorization is expected to be discussed when the UE conference board meets in December, he said. The UE represents 5,000 GE workers.
shilling@vindy.com