Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 14, 1991 TAG: 9103140095
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Financial matters appear to be the prime target of the 1,000 union members at GE's Salem plant, a union official said Wednesday.
Dewey Minton, chairman of the International Union of Electronic Workers-GE Conference Board, the union's bargaining arm, talked about the issues for renewal of the national contract during a visit to the Salem local.
The union "definitely will go for more" than the 5.5 percent pay increase workers received over three years in the last contract, he said. The IUE has an eye on the $4.3 billion earnings GE reported for 1990. Last year's profits rose by 9 percent over 1989.
Minton said the union does not want a lump-sum payment like the $1,065 each member received in 1988 and 1989. The IUE will seek an updated cost-of-living formula. At present, the union gets 1 cent per hour for each 0.15 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index. This brought 82 cents in five raises during the past three years.
Minton said this anticipates increased inflation. "We've got to have that factor in there. If it does increase, we'll be protected."
He said the union's bargaining committee is preparing a contract proposal that will be presented when negotiations start in May. The current three-year national pact expires June 30.
In a survey of the approximately 38,000 IUE members in 74 GE locals, "everybody was interested in job security," Minton said.
Salem employees, working at a plant opened in 1955, are among those interested in early retirement "with benefits they can live on," Minton said. "They would like to get out earlier than the normal age of 60 or 62."
Minton said he does not believe the recession will be a factor in the talks because of the wide variety of GE's products and markets. Automation is not an issue, he said, because in some areas new products have provided jobs.
But the IUE is concerned about GE's "taking our jobs to Mexico and Korea." Minton said company employment figures for the past two years show no change in total numbers but an increase of 20,000 employees in other countries and a loss of 20,000 in the U.S.
He said the union will try to get benefits that will be costly enough "so the company will think twice about moving jobs to another location."
Minton, who is based at Louisville, played an active role as conference board secretary in 1985 and 1988 negotiations.
"I expect anything" in negotiations with GE, he said. "They're hard to deal with. When they have huge profits, they talk about the competition . . . After three years, they've done better and better" each year.
by CNB