United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America locals 506 and 618 voted on final contract terms with Wabtec that keeps the former GE Transportation locomotive plant in Lawrence Park, Pa., flush with Wabtec work.
Union members voted to approve a the four-year deal with Wabtec after nearly 128 days of negotiations and a strike that brought production to a standstill shortly after Wabtec took over GE earlier this year.
While both sides allowed for a few revisions to the contract to get it approved, one part of the contract that will not happen for now is the hot issue of the two-tier wages proposal which was a significant dividing line between the parties.
The unions also originally wanted 400 additional employees. In the approved contract they will only be getting 100. Most everything agreed on however will keep production of new and modernized locomotives at the plant for at least the next 4 years. With current projects and several new ones coming to both Erie and Fort Worth, Texas, this will not only benefit the Erie facility but proves that it will be essential to Wabtec in the short term.
“Now, we can move forward together to position the site for stability and deliver for our customers,” a Wabtec official said in a statement.
To Mr. Maguire’s remark that Ft. Worth is the promised land: The average starting wage at Erie is now $22/hr. WABTEC is advertising welder/assembler jobs at Ft. Worth at $24.47 There is something strange going on with WABTEC management. After precipitating a strike by ignoring UE 506 untll 10 days before the take-over, and then demanding that the union, in effect, roll over and die, the company caved on almost all points–apparently. The union kept the legacy wage structure for existing .employees but new employees will start at an average of $22/hr and have a 10 year progression to legacy wages. After repeatedly stating that Erie was the least cost effective of its 80 plants, WABTEC settled essentially on the old GE contract at $35/hr. They also agreed to create 100 jobs over the course of the 4-year contract. Question is, how are they saving wage expense for existing workers? And how do they know they can add 100 jobs over the course of the contract not knowing what the order book is going to look like 4 years from now? The locomotive business is highly cyclical and with PSR wide-spread, sales aren’t what they might be. Just yesterday, I saw a flat-bed semi taking pair of either Moldovan or Ukrainian operator cabs off-site. Haven’t a clue what that’s about but I don’t think it bodes well. Under normal circumstances , they wouldn’t leave the plant until assembled on a complete locomotive.
What I pray doesn’t happen is a corporate tax based plant closure. We had that happen almost 20years ago with Hammermill paper. Plant owner International Paper closed a plant that generated $1 billion in its last full year of operation and then spent about $22million to raze the plant and machinery. They then sold the carcass to the local industrial authority for about $4million. It’s still about 95% vacant. Reagan-era tax “reform” is a wonderful thing to behold. The tax loss carry-forward was good for years of deductions against corporate profits. The rest of us tax payers got the bill and the former Hammermill employees got the u know what.
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Mr. McGuire. The smaller Fort Worth plant does not have sufficient production capacity. Given it is located in an industrial warehouse district, I don’t think they have room to expand.
Great for both Wabtec and the Union workers at the plant. This country’s great unions have worked hard to negotiate fair wages and safe working conditions and union workers are the best at whatever we do. Maybe one day the Texas plant workers will vote to join the brotherhood. It would definitely be in their best interest.
Bad move by Wabtec. they gave up the most important part of the deal. They should have closed the plant and moved production to Fort Worth or somewhere else where labor is more reasonably priced. They’ll regret this.
My guess is you didn’t have strong union then Steven, every violation of a contract can be brought in front of the NLRB, if management doesn’t correct it themselves once notified.
Let’s hope that Wabtec keeps it’s end of the deal…I worked for a very large corporation for 40 years and went thru numerous new contracts. Just about everyone of them, the ink would barely be dry and they would already start violating it….just sayin’…