All UE locals whose members work for General Electric and are covered by the UE-GE National Agreement have ratified a new four-year contract with GE. A tentative agreement was reached between the union bargaining committee and the company on June 21, the expiration date of the previous contract. In the nine days that followed, UE locals distributed contract summaries to their members, held meetings, and conducted voting on ratification. The largest UE local in GE, Local 506 which represents 3,200 workers at the locomotive plant in Erie, Pennsylvania, voted today.
AGREEMENT INCLUDES IMPORTANT GAINS AND PROTECTIONS
One of the most important elements of the 2015 negotiations was the successful resistance by UE and the others unions of GE’s attempt to eliminate company subsidies for post-65 health insurance. All UE members will continue to retire with post-65 healthcare subsidies.
UE and the other unions also secured an important guarantee from GE that it will not attempt to freeze the pension during the term of this contract nor in negotiations for the next contact. Pension benefits will continue to accumulate with substantial improvements and are secure and free from any GE effort to freeze such benefits until at least 2023.
Wage increases, COLA, and lump sum bonuses will result in increased pay of more than $15,000 for every UE-represented GE employee in the U.S. Health insurance contributions are frozen until January 1, 2017. After scheduled increases in health insurance premium contributions between 2017 and 2019 are taken into account go, union members will net more than $12,000 in increases in compensation.
GE had also targeted retiree life insurance for elimination. This benefit is continued for those who retire during the term of the new contract, but starting in 2016 will be reduced to $15,000 per retiree.
Pension improvements are impressive and contain a pension update which will increase average pensions for members who retire during the term of this contract by more than $5,000 per year. Guaranteed minimum pensions, career earnings tables, and early retirement supplements are also increased. For the first time in almost three decades disability pensions have been improved.
GE has also committed to a new health claim processing system under which only one healthcare card is needed and claims processing can be done directly through medical providers. Workers and their families will no longer need to engage in time-consuming self-administration of their health accounts via computer, telephone, and fax in order get their medical claims paid. In major locations like Erie, GE will provide a healthcare advocate to help process any difficult claims. The new system will start January 1, 2016 and by midyear UE and GE will meet to review the changes to make sure that claims are processing smoothly. If not, the parties have agreed to quickly make adjustments to the claims processing system.
Many other contract improvements were gained. Contract negotiations were held in New York City beginning June 1, concluding with a tentative agreement reached on June 21. UE negotiates with GE as part of the Coordinated Bargaining Committee of GE Unions (CBC) which includes 11 unions. The final bargaining with the company was conducted by a committee including representatives of UE, IUE-CWA, UAW, IAM, and IBEW.
Commenting on the tentative settlement UE General President Bruce Klipple said, “We protected post-65 health care, stopped pensions from being frozen until 2023, and made sure that all members receive much more in increased pay than the new health care contributions.” Klipple added, “This contract came about because of the determination of UE local and national leaders at the bargaining table to achieve a fair agreement, and the actions of our members in their workplaces and their communities to back up their bargaining committee.”