GENERAL ELECTRIC Valley workers to join in strike

The union says GE raised workers' costs by 16 percent, even though its costs rose just 9.7 percent.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- About 800 General Electric Co. employees at three local plants will join thousands of unionized GE workers nationwide in a 48-hour strike next week in a protest of increases in health care co-payments.
Janet Bernard, president of Local 734, International Union of Electrical Workers-Communication Workers of America, said the walkout is set to start with the midnight shift Monday and to continue through Wednesday at midnight.
"Technically, we have to call it a strike, but it's more like a protest or a demonstration," she said. "We want the company to take us seriously. Even though they're sending our jobs to Mexico and overseas, we want them to know that the union is still a force to be reckoned with at the bargaining table."
The walkout will be the first national strike in more than 30 years for the Connecticut-based conglomerate.
The numbers
Nationwide, the walkout will involve about 14,000 workers. Locally, Bernard said, the walkout will include about 114 at GE's Austintown plant, about 500 at its Ohio Lamp Plant in Warren and about 200 United Electrical Workers members at the Niles plant.
Company officials have said the company will continue operations during the walkout, which will affect about 6 percent of its global work force of 310,000.
Janet Fraser, a GE spokeswoman in northeastern Ohio, could not be reached for comment.
Bernard said IUE-CWA leaders passed a resolution last month calling for a strike, and the date was set Tuesday afternoon.
Health care co-payments
GE increased workers' health care co-payments Jan. 1 to reflect what the company complained were sharply higher health insurance costs.
Company officials estimated the change would cost the average worker about $200 per year, while the union estimated the increases would cost $300 to $400 more per worker annually.
But the union is arguing that GE, which earned $16 billion in profits in 2002, could afford to pay the higher costs, at least until the union's current, three-year contract expires in June.
"GE has provoked a strike through its greed," said IUE-CWA president Edward Fire. "A company that sets record profits each year -- $14.1 billion in 2001 -- can afford to maintain health benefits without forcing workers and retirees to pay more."
The union said the cost of GE's managed-care plan for health care insurance increased by 9.7 percent, but worker's co-payments grew 16 percent.
Paying the cost
Bernard said the company has said it is saving $28 million by increasing workers co-payments. "A two-day strike will cost them at least that much, so what did they gain?" she asked.
Union members expected to face the issue of increased health care costs at the bargaining table in May, Bernard said, but they didn't expect the company to increase co-payments in mid-contract. The union's three-year pact expires June 15.
vinarsky@vindy.com