ERIE, Pa. — Officials from GE Transportation Systems Inc.’s largest labor union spent much of Wednesday behind closed doors, plotting their next move in its dispute with the company over its practice of shipping local jobs to cheaper plants overseas, the Erie Times-News reported.
Randy Majewski, president of the United Electrical Radio & Machine Workers Local 506, said late Wednesday afternoon that officials have not yet determined whether that move would include a strike.
Majewski has said union members might walk off the job at GE Transportation Systems’ Lawrence Park locomotive plant if the union cannot reach an agreement with the company.
While he offered no information regarding whether the two sides are making headway in their discussions, Majewski hinted a solution is possible.
“It’s not Armageddon,” he said.
The union has filed a series of grievances against GE Transportation Systems since late 2001 as a result of the company’s decision to ship union jobs to foreign GE outposts.
Those grievances have not been resolved, meaning UE 506 and its sister union, UE Local 618, have the right to strike under their contract with the company, union officials have said.
A series of layoffs and early retirement buyouts have thinned the company’s union membership from about 3,500 in 2000 to about 2,900 hourly and nonexempt workers today. During the past year alone, that number has been trimmed by about 400.
The union and the company reached a deal in May to protect 167 jobs that were slated to be shipped overseas plants as part of a plan by GE Transportation Systems to outsource 214 positions by the end of the year.
But even with that deal, union officials say the company is going too far in its effort to cut costs.
“Despite our successes, we have still suffered many losses, losses that have a definite ripple effect in the community,” Majewski said Friday.
The last union-organized work stoppage at the Lawrence Park plant was in 1993, when workers staged a mid-shift walkout following a dispute over salaried workers performing tasks typically done by hourly employees.
GE Transportation Systems spokesman Jeff DeMarrais was traveling and could not be reached for comment Wednesday. He has said the company cannot comment publicly on its dealings with the union.