GE, Union to Meet Today After Contract Fails
WARREN, Ohio – A meeting is set for today between representatives of IUE-CWA 722 and the management team at General Electric's Ohio Lamp Plant, following the union's rejection last night of an agreement aimed at maintaining production at the plant, a GE spokesman confirmed.
Workers voted all day Monday at the union hall. The outcome was announced about 8 p.m. but not the actual vote tally. Published reports indicate the margin was small. A rally is scheduled to take place at 3 p.m. today outside the plant, according to a report posted on WKBN.com. Expressing their disappointment with the results of the balloting, GE officials said last night a "final decision" had not been made regarding the future of the plant, according to a release issued following the vote.
"This package was mainly structured by the union leadership to save jobs and we thought we had negotiated a fair package which the union leadership supported," said Ron Wilson, general manager -- lighting supply chain, GE Lighting, in the statement. "This package would have allowed Ohio Lamp Plant to have a promising future bysaving some of the existing production, whle adding new equipment and work that would keep jobs in the Warren area."
The contract proposal called for moving all but one line of incandescent products out of Ohio to other plants, said Chris Augustine, manager of global communications and public affairs for GE Lighting. "Then we would put in several lines of energy-efficient halogen bulbs," he added.
GE Lighting announced its intent to close the Warren plant Jan. 24, and for two months company and union officials discussed altrnatives to keep the plant open, according to GE's release.
The plant closing was expected to result in 198 full-time workers losing their jobs. GE did not publicly say how many workers would remain if the new contract was ratified.
The plant is now running at one third of capacity.
When GE announced its plans to close the plant, it pointed out nearly half of the affected employees -- 98 people -- would be eligible for retirement or a plant-closing pension option.
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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