Unions, GE ready for contract talks

General Electric Co.”™s labor unions are preparing furiously for contract negotiations next month in New York City, with the potential for disruptions at facilities that employ more than one in 10 of its U.S. work force.
On June 17, GE”™s contracts expire with the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers-Communications Workers of America (IUE-CWA), as well as smaller unions.
GE”™s 13 unions collaborate via the Coordinated Bargaining Committee of GE Unions. The CBC has held meetings to coordinate their negotiations with GE, which are scheduled for May 21 in New York City.
The June deadline is unlikely to have much impact on the company”™s operations in Fairfield County, where GE employs more than 6,000 people, mostly in nonunionized finance and administrative roles. But the negotiations will provide a new litmus test for organized labor”™s clout in corporate America. 
In 2003, GE suffered its first significant strike in 33 years, after 17,000 workers in 23 states protested GE shifting $200 to $400 in health-care costs onto employees. The work stoppage was comparatively mild, lasting two days.
More debilitating was the previous strike in 1969. That impasse lasted 14 weeks, with union members derisively terming GE negotiator Lemuel Boulware”™s take-it-or-leave-it approach as “Boulwarism.”
GE did not respond to inquiries on how it is preparing for talks with its unions. In his most recent conference call with analysts, GE Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt said the company will “need to manage” through the negotiation.
The risk of instability from a strike has lessened greatly since 2003. In the past four years, membership in most GE unions has declined 23 percent to 19,500 workers today, although NBC Universal has seen its union membership increase from 2,100 people that year to 3,500 today. NBC Universal is not participating in the June talks.

The decline in union members has matched a drop in GE”™s overall U.S. work force. For the first time in 2006, GE employed more people outside the United States than inside the country”™s borders, as first reported last month by the Fairfield County Business Journal.
Another large GE unit may soon have a foreign owner. Saudi Basic Industries Corp., the largest publicly traded company in the Middle East, reportedly is preparing a $12 billion bid to acquire GE”™s plastics division, which is based in Pittsfield, Mass.
New York City private equity fund Blackstone Group L.P. may also bid on the division in conjunction with Wichita, Kan., conglomerate Koch Industries Inc., according to the Financial Times.
In light of a general decline in union clout, on March 1, the U.S. House of Representatives voted for legislation that would make it easier for unions to organize. Called the Employee Free Choice Act, the measure must now mass muster in the Senate.
Besides IUE-CWA, the primary negotiators will include the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE); and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM).
IAM represents 2,500 GE employees in nine states. In February, the union organized a three-week strike in February at Harley-Davidson”™s largest manufacturing plant in York, Pa. The picket ended when the motorcycle icon agreed to continue paying full health-care insurance premiums.
“Despite its profits and market dominance … GE routinely claims competition from Third World countries puts it at a competitive disadvantage,” said Tom O’Heron, IAM”™s collective bargaining director. “We should be prepared for negotiations that will require the utmost in membership solidarity and resolve.”