(ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA) – Union-Represented Locomotive Builders are demanding that General Electric (GE) Stop the Transfer of Nearly a Third of the Plant’s Jobs to a Non-Union, Lower-Wage Factory in Texas and are Rallying to Draw Public Attention to the Decision.

The Three Actions - One for Each Shift - follow the Profitable Factory’s April 9th announcement that 950 Union Jobs would be moved to what GE had called an “Overflow" Plant in Ft. Worth.  A week after the Surprise Announcement, the Members of United Electrical Workers (UE) Local 506 Walked Off the Job for Two Hours in Protest.

The Original Plan for that April Protest was for Stewards in each of the Complex’s 13 Buildings to Punch Out 30 minutes before the End of the Shift and March Together through the 320-acre grounds.  But the Desire for a Solidarity March grew until the Officers suggested that all Members would be Welcome to Join the Stewards.

Rallies were also being held at GE locations in Chicago and Fairfield, Connecticut.

GE made the Announcement only after Months of Misleading Local 506 and the Erie Community, claiming that Ft. Worth would not cost Erie any Jobs.  The Job Loss would be Devastating to the City of 102,000.

Local 506, with 3,700 Members, is the UE’s Largest Local and One of its Oldest.  Top Officers criticized GE’s “Competitive Wage” Strategy and pointed out that Profits for the Company’s Transportation Division, based in Erie, more than Doubled to $757 million between 2010 and 2011, and grew another 36% to $1 billion in 2012.  “The Company named the Transportation Division ‘Business Of The Year’ for 2012,” the Officers wrote, “and the Head of GE Transportation walked around the Erie Plant showing off the Trophy.”

Now GE Transportation Systems VP Lorenzo Simonelli says the Move is Necessary to make the Division more "Competitive."

Because of Language in the Union Contract, the Announcement began a Six-Month Period before the Work could be Moved and a 60-day “Decision Bargaining” Period to Change Management’s Minds.

You can read the rest of this Labor News Story at: http://www.labornotes.org/2013/05/locomotive-builders-say-%E2%80%98keep-it-made-erie%E2%80%99