Wabtec Negotiations 2023

Instead of using its $8.3 billion in annual sales and 13% increase in profits last year to create good union jobs for people making green locomotives, the [Wabtec] board of directors authorized $750 million on stock buybacks to increase shareholder dividends.

That's an insult — not just to the workers who make the company run, but to the rest of us who stand to benefit if the company followed the union's lead.

Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis visited UE Local 506 members at the picket lines Monday evening, showing his and Governor Shapiro’s support of union workers.

Lt. Gov. Davis agreed with union members on strike that they deserve fair wages and signed a letter of support for UE Local 506 and 618, sending it to Wabtec executives.

He said he did so to let those executives know where the Commonwealth’s leadership stands on the situation.

Workers at the Wabtec locomotive manufacturing plant in Erie, Pennsylvania, have walked off the job. Their demands get to the heart of bigger questions about the nature of work and the role workers can play in fights like climate change.

According to chief steward Leo Grzegorzewski, 95 percent of grievances that reach the final step are rejected by Wabtec, forcing the union to go to arbitration at a cost of $9,000 each time. Since 2019, around 68 grievances have reached arbitration.

The Erie workers rarely struck over grievances when the plant was owned by GE—only four times from 2005 to 2019, for a total of 13 hours—but the possibility of a strike forced management to treat them with respect. Without it, workers say contract violations are rampant and management does as it pleases.