The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky), June 28, 2007, Thursday

Copyright 2007 The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)

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The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky)

June 28, 2007 Thursday

METRO Edition

SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. 1D

HEADLINE: Local GE workers ratify contract

BYLINE: Jere Downs jdowns@courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal

BODY:

Pact would preserve

standard of living

By Jere Downs

jdowns@courier-journal.com

{}The Courier-Journal

Union workers at General Electric Co.'s Appliance Park overwhelmingly approved a four-year contract yesterday that many of their peers across Kentucky would envy.

The deal would preserve a standard of living that is increasingly rare among manufacturing workers in the state.

Eighty percent of the 2,700 workers at the Louisville plant turned out to vote on the national four-year pact that will provide higher wages, pension increases and a paid Veterans Day holiday, IUE/CWA Local 761 President William T. "Tommy" Spires said yesterday.

The contract, which was approved by 78 percent of those workers, eliminates retiree health-care benefits for those hired after Dec. 31 and requires current employees to pay more for health care.

If the contract is approved nationally, workers' pay would increase 16 percent over the life of the agreement through raises and cost-of-living adjustments.

About 80 percent of union workers at the plant or 2,100 earn between $25 and $29 an hour, or about $56,000 a year.

"Everybody expected we would pay more for health care," Spires said. "I feel we had a good wage increase. ... There was something in it for all of us."

GE spokeswoman Kim Freeman welcomed the union announcement yesterday .

"This is great news," she said. "Having the contract ratified in Louisville by such an overwhelming percentage speaks volumes to the union and GE's commitment to our employees and our business."

Results from the nationwide voting are expected to be released by the end of the week.

In a time of increasing uncertainty for manufacturing unions, the IUE/CWA bargaining committee negotiated a good contract, said Rick Bank, director of collective bargaining for the AFL-CIO labor federation.

"It is rare to see anybody do that well," Bank said. "They held the line on health care."

Appliance Park operates in the red, losing about $40 million annually.

To keep manufacturing jobs in Louisville, GE management and labor negotiated a "Competitive Wage Agreement" in 2005.

The response was overwhelming then as 11,000 people applied for 500 new jobs at a lower wage beginning at about $13 an hour, Freeman said.

Although employees at the lower pay scale earn roughly $29,000 annually, they enjoy the same health-care and retirement package given to all GE workers.

The lower competitive wage is still a very good deal for workers in the state, said Martin A. Kish, spokesman for the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers, a trade organization.

Nonunion hourly wages for Louisville-area assembly workers range between $14 and $18 , according to an annual wage survey by the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers. Overtime, benefits and union workplace data were unavailable.

"Virtually any manufacturing job in Kentucky is a well-paying job because they most likely will have benefits," Kish said. "Because Kentucky ranks near the bottom of all states in terms of citizens with health insurance, manufacturing jobs are probably the best jobs in the state."

The GE contract would cover 20,000 union workers nationwide.

It allows two early retirement opportunities for employees between the ages of 55 and 59 with 30 years of service. Of the union workers in all of GE's U.S. plants, 500 workers can leave this year, with 400 able to follow in 2009.

Retirees also benefit from the contract, which proposes a pension increase that must be approved by the GE board of directors.

Trimming new- hire wages and benefits while enhancing the package for the majority of existing workers is a compromise unfolding in contract talks across the nation because of the global economy, Cornell University Labor Relations professor Richard W. Hurd said.

"From GE's standpoint, they have gotten the kind of flexibility that allows them to continue to operate effectively," he said.

The IUE/CWA bargained to preserve or enhance the status quo for longtime members. But as lower-paid union members grow in number , they will want improved conditions too, Hurd noted.

"Unions essentially created an opportunity for blue- collar workers to enjoy a middle- class lifestyle," he said.

"The union will face some difficulty in the future as younger members want what their predecessors have."

Reporter Jere Downs can be reached at (502) 582-4669.