UE-GE negotiations continued on Friday, June 5, with the company making a presentation on retiree health insurance that telegraphed its intentions, even as GE representatives repeatedly stated that they were making no proposal “at this time.”
GE brought back health insurance administrator Virginia Proestakes for the morning session, and also brought in David Speir, a company-paid consultant from Towers Watson, for a presentation on “trends” among corporations in how they’re dealing with retiree health. But before Speir could begin, GE chief negotiator Mike Luvisi wanted to inform the UE committee that the union “doesn’t represent current retirees.”
“That’s unmitigated nonsense,” shot back UE’s chief negotiator Gene Elk. UE and the company have dealt with retiree issues at the bargaining table for years, he said, and will continue to do so. Next week, he said, Ron Flowers of the Erie retiree group RAGE (Retirees Association of General Electric) will join us here to discuss pensions and other issues of our current retirees. Elk said of Luvisi’s comment, “It’s self-serving and we reject it.”
The first part of Speir’s presentation was a straightforward explanation of Medicare and how it works, including Parts A, B and D, Medigap supplementary insurance, and alternatives through private Medicare Advantage accounts. He then spoke about so-called private exchanges, into which he said an increasing number of employers are steering their retirees in order to shed the responsibility to provide them Medigap supplements.
Proetakes then presented the company’s version of the “experience” of GE salaried retirees who were moved to the private exchange prior to December 31, 2014 and lost their post-65 GE health insurance supplement. She said 8 out of 10 retirees like the new program, but when asked by Local 506 President Scott Slawson, she acknowledged that the survey was among only those who are receiving a $1,000 annual subsidy from the company to help pay for their insurance. Those who retired after January 1, 2015 get no such subsidy. (Prior to the change, GE’s post-65 Medicare supplements for each salaried retiree cost the company approximately $1,600 annually and another $1,600 for the retiree’s spouse. That’s money the company no longer spends on its retirees’ health.)
“You told us that salaried workers were happy with the new health care program (GEHB) during negotiations in 2011,” commented UE Local 506 Vice President Mike Ferritto “and look how that turned into a big disaster for us.” “Based on that experience we have a very low level of trust about your new post-65 program.”
Salaried retirees who turn 65 in 2015 and later are receiving no subsidy, said Elk, who told the company that they’ll hear a full presentation from UE on this topic next week. He said UE members “bought and paid for this retiree healthcare” over many years of bargaining, when the union agreed to put less into wages and other benefits in order to fund this vital program. “In 2007 you bargained to restrict access to this benefit for those hired starting in 2008. Now you’re saying, to put it bluntly, ‘You’re not dying fast enough,’ so you’re back for another bite of the apple. That’s simply unacceptable.” GE’s Mike Luvisi took offense at Elk’s remark about people “not dying fast enough” for GE.
Elk suggested that the $50 billion GE is reportedly getting from the sale of GE Capital is more than enough to fully fund retiree healthcare and that even after paying to continue post-65 healthcare, the company would have a huge cash reserve to pay for future product development and to invest in our plants.
“You have plenty of money,” said UE President Bruce Klipple. “We got that from Mr. Bornstein’s presentation,” referring to GE’s CFO who addressed the bargaining committee two days earlier. “You are not going to get an agreement that does to us what you did to salaried retirees.”
Luvisi reiterated that the company has so far put no proposal on the table. “We’re letting you know how we feel about the proposal you might make,” said Frank Fusco, business agent of Local 506. IAM representative Tom Herron added, “The Machinists agree that we funded this benefit and we have no interest in changing it.”
Following a break, Elk began presenting UE’s proposals on paid time off. The union proposed adding New Years Eve and one floating holiday as paid holidays, and noted that GE has not improved the holiday schedule since 2007.
The union also proposed to “substantially increase the sick and personal day schedule.” This led to a lengthy discussion on how the current provision on sick and personal leave is being abused by management in Erie. “Managers regularly deny sick and personal time,” said Local 506 Chief Plant Steward Leo Grzegorzewski. Elk reported that due to these abuses, people are coming to work with the flu or other illnesses and infecting others. “You end up with more people absent,” said Local 506 President Scott Slawson. Some members have even asked if they can file a Workers’ Comp claim because they got infected at work. “It’s who you know, who you work for, where you work,” said Mike Ferritto. “It’s a huge issue, people complain to us about it all the time.”
“They end up in the accelerated attendance policy, headed for discipline, because they’re being denied personal or sick time,” said Grzegorzewski. “and GE’s handling of personal time requests is completely inconsistent from one area of the plant to the next.” Elk reminded the company that the contract language says the employee is expected to notify the manager “whenever possible,” and also says that management approval “will not be unreasonably withheld.” Scott Slawson schooled Luvisi on the National Agreement’s current S&P provision, reminding him that “approval” for time off was only required for scheduling of floating holidays and not for sick and personal days. Luvisi did not respond.
Fusco said he could recall, in past national negotiations, raising with negotiators from GE corporate headquarters issues of local management abuses in Erie, and getting those issues resolved. “So who’s going to call Erie?” he asked, referring to the fact the Luvisi is part of Erie management.
Grzegorzewski asked if this problem was unique to Erie and Mel O’Dell, president of Local 332, replied, “It sounds like it’s unique to your plant. They don’t deny personal time in Ft. Edward.”
Elk and Klipple told the company this needs to be resolved. Luvisi said he’d take it under consideration and would notify the union on June 8 when the company intended to respond to this issue.
Elk resumed his presentation of UE’s proposed changes to the contract. These included payment of unused sick and personal time when an employee has a break in service; eliminating the 17-day cap on military pay differential; no reduction in FMLA entitlement due to leaves for paid short term disability or Workers Comp, and to include paternity leave and union lost time in calculating FMLA eligibility.
The union proposed vacation increases: four weeks at 10 years, 5.5 weeks at 25 years, and 7 weeks at 35 years. Elk recalled that GE began granting salaried workers 4 weeks’ vacation pay after ten years in 2003. “There’s no reason why salaried workers should get four weeks’ pay and we only get three at ten years,” he said. In addition, we need to extend vacation time if it is interrupted by sickness or any other compensable time-off. The union also proposed that the worker have the choice of whether or not to use paid vacation during a plant shutdown or to sign up for unemployment benefits. Mel O’Dell stated that Ft. Edward workers have such a choice, confirming the company’s uneven approach to vacation shutdowns. Additionally, the union demanded that annual shutdowns be limited to two weeks per year, and that GE notify the local union prior to January 15 about a scheduled shutdown. Other vacation proposals include simplifying the calculation of weekly vacation hours to the workers’ average weekly hours during the previous year or 40 hours, whichever is greater.
UE proposed increasing shop stewards’ company-paid union business to two hours a week, and up to 24 hours for local executive board members. The union also proposed improvements in jury duty pay to cover all government administrative hearings, such as NLRB hearings, and that jury duty pay be eight hours per day for all shifts.
Bargaining is scheduled to resume on Monday morning, June 8.
UE was represented in Friday’s session by President Bruce Klipple, International Rep. Gene Elk, Local 506 Business Agent Frank Fusco, President Scott Slawson, Chief Plant Steward Leo Grzegorzewski, and Vice President Mike Ferritto; Local 332 President Melvin O’Dell and Business Agent Sherice Stark; Local 618 President Mike Divins; Local 601 Recording Secretary Fred Harris; Northeast Region President Peter Knowlton; Research Director Karl Zimmerman; and UE News Managing Editor Al Hart. Field Organizer Omar el-Malah represented UE at the IUE-CWA bargaining table. Other CBC unions joining UE at the bargaining table were the UAW, IAM, IBEW and USW.