SCHENECTADY, NY – TODAY, October 25, hundreds of General Electric workers from plants in Massachusetts, New York, Kansas, and Kentucky, as well as maintenance crews based across the country, will converge in the largest national direct action by GE workers in years, marching together to the General Electric factory in Schenectady, New York, to rally and demand that the nearly $80 billion dollar company reinvest in American workers, stop its illegal union busting, and take immediate action to protect jobs, strengthen pay, ensure retirement security, and cut healthcare costs for its domestic workforce.
- WHAT: Hundreds of GE workers from across America converging for largest joint direct action in years
- WHERE: IUE-CWA Local 301 Union Hall at 251 State Street, Schenectady, NY Workers will gather at 11:30am *From there, they will march to the General Electric Plant at 1 Old River Road, Schenectady, NY and rally (Noon to 1pm)*
- WHEN: TODAY, OCTOBER 25, 11:30 a.m.</font color>
- WHO: Hundreds of General Electric workers from across America; Carl Kennebrew, National President of IUE-CWA, the largest union representing U.S. GE workers; elected union leadership from across the country.
VISUALS: March and Rally with Banner and Signs: “Inflation Protection Now!”, “GE – Fix High Health Care Prices”, “GE – Stop Outsourcing Our Jobs”, “We Want Successorship at GE”, We Stand with All GE Workers – United at GE”
WHY: General Electric is one of the largest manufacturing firms in the world, yet it has been divesting from its American workforce for decades. With a nationwide contract expiration for thousands of GE workers just months away, GE pushing a $2.5 billion plan to break up the company, and GE making headlines for its alleged illegal union-busting in Alabama including the unfounded firing of a pregnant worker, hundreds of GE workers from four states across the country are converging in Schenectady, NY, for the largest coordinated, multi-state national action aimed at the industry giant in years.
This latest mobilization comes as IUE-CWA, the largest union for GE workers in the U.S., prepares to head into negotiations with the company before union contracts across the nation expire in the summer of 2023.
This latest mobilization comes as IUE-CWA, the largest union for GE workers in the U.S., prepares to head into negotiations with the company before union contracts across the nation expire in the summer of 2023.
Workers at the rally are demanding GE stop the outsourcing and offshoring of jobs, increase pay to respond to spiraling cost of living, protect retirement security, lower exorbitant healthcare costs through improved healthcare plans, and commit to ensuring workers will keep the rights they’ve won through collective bargaining when GE splits into three companies.
Additionally, in their fight to stop GE’s offshoring and outsourcing, IUE-CWA Locals have been demanding that GE:
- Invest at least $5 billion over the next 5 years and add thousands of jobs to existing and recently shuttered U.S. facilities.; instead of wasting $5 billion on stock buybacks and its own break up.
- Reshore all U.S. military aviation production and 70% of GE industrial work offshored over the past 5 years.
- Let shareholders vote on the proposed breakup of GE and add elected worker representatives to the GE Board of Directors.
- Convert historic GE facilities into advanced factories with supplier parks to minimize supply chain disruptions, building up an American offshore wind power supply chain on our shores, including in Schenectady, New York – the original Electric City.
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