GENERAL ELECTRIC Area union leader will join in pact bargaining

She said health care costs will likely be the toughest issue.
THE VINDICATOR
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Janet Bernard says she has a passion for fairness and she's never been afraid to speak her mind.
The Youngstown native believes those qualities won her a place on the 34-member committee negotiating a new international bargaining agreement for 24,400 General Electric employees. The talks began Monday in New York City.
Bernard, 50, is president of Local 734 of the United Union of Electrical Workers-Communication Workers of America representing 110 hourly workers at the General Electric plant in Austintown. GE also has about 500 other employees in Niles and Warren.
GE is a giant conglomerate involved in several business categories, so Bernard said she's happy to represent the concerns of its lighting divisions, which includes all three local plants.
Toughest issue
Health care costs will likely be the toughest issue in this year's talks, she said. Unionized GE employees held a two-day strike in January to protest an increase in their health care copayments and to demonstrate opposition to further increases.
The union also wants a 30-and-out clause, which would allow workers to retire with full pension after 30 years, regardless of their age.
"And with the profits GE has -- they made $15 billion in profits last year -- it's customary that we always expect a wage increase," she said.
GE has said it would like a four-year agreement, while the union is pushing for a three-year contract. The current, three-year pact expires June 15, and the union would strike June 25 if no agreement is reached.
Biographical
A member of the Chaney High School class of 1970, Bernard grew up on Youngstown's West Side and signed on with GE right after graduation. She worked at GE's Hughes Street location in Youngstown until it closed, then moved to the Austintown plant where she completed training as a mechanic.
"I was a single parent for many years and I figured if I could shingle and paint the house and repair the furnace at home, I could do the same kind of thing for GE," she aid.
She was elected president of Local 734 in 1998 and is serving her second three-year term.
She's also serving her second stint as the only female member of the bargaining team. It took some time, but she said she has the respect and support of her fellow team members. "That was a major hurdle," she said. "Now I feel like I'm just one of the guys."
Bernard said she'll be in New York Mondays through Thursdays for bargaining, coming home to Youngstown on weekends to spend time with her husband, Ron, and their 13-year-old son, Ron Jr. She also has a grown daughter who lives in Florida.
vinarsky@vindy.com