More than 600 GE Aerospace workers initiated a strike at two plants on Thursday, August 28, after the manufacturer and the United Auto Workers union failed to reach a new labor agreement. The two sides have been in negotiation for several weeks without arriving at a contract proposal, according to the UAW.
“For weeks, UAW members at GE have been bargaining with management for a new contract,” according to a UAW statement. “Core demands are around job security, health care costs, and time-off. Throughout these negotiations, management has responded with either insulting counter-offers that would increase health care costs for workers by 40% over four years or by not offering any counters at all to good-faith proposals on the table.”
The union further reported: “Following a contentious negotiation on Wednesday (August 20), the bargaining committee walked out and called for a strike authorization vote to be held this week.”
The vote authorizing the strike was taken on August 22.
Coincidentally, on August 20 approximately 550 workers at GE Aerospace in Evendale, Ohio, ratified a new five-year agreement negotiated by their union, the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. Evendale, near Cincinnati, is where GE is headquartered, and also one of the plants now targeted by striking UAW workers.
GE Aerospace operates more than 40 locations in the U.S., and more than 80 worldwide. The company manufactures turbofan, turbojet, turboprop, and turbofan engines installed in commercial, military, and business aircraft; industrial gas engines, and marine engines. It also produces a wide variety of component parts for those engines.
The company has had no official comment regarding the strike action, but a spokesperson reported it has a “contingency plan” ready for that eventuality.
The Evendale plant manufactures commercial, military, and business jet engine components, including ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) for high-temperature engine components.
The other plant hit by the UAW is in Erlanger, Ken. It also manufactures aircraft engine parts and is a distribution center for GE Aerospace commercial hardware.
In March GE Aerospace outlined capital spending plans estimated at $127 million for various Cincinnati area plants.
