GE employees in GC hope to get union contract
GROVE CITY — The employees at the GE Transportation Diesel Engine Plant here are not under a union contract, but one employee is representing them during contract negotiations this month in New York City.
Steve Gallagher, a Grove City plant employee and the president of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Local 601, said that Fred Harris, the group’s recording secretary, is participating in the negotiations.
While the plant’s workers have a union in name, it is not recognized by GE.
Union and GE representatives plan to spend several weeks in New York City this month to work out terms of new contracts for about 16,500 union workers at other plants across the nation.
The national agreement, which expires June 21, does not affect the Grove City plant, said Catherine Heiman, communications manager for GE Transportation.
For a union to be recognized by GE the Grove City employees would first need to vote to approve it, Heiman said.
UE Local 601, which organized in 2012, is chartered through the national union, headquartered in Pittsburgh.
The employees involved hope to go under contract at some point in the future, which is why Harris is participating in the contract talks.
Though Gallagher wouldn’t say how many members the chapter currently has, there are about 1,200 workers at the plant who would qualify for membership, he said.
Most of the workers are machinists and assemblers. The plant makes diesel engines for locomotives, marine use or stationary use.
Workers at the GE Transportation plant in Erie are unionized, and they earn better wages as a result, Gallagher said.
“That is the reason we are starting this union, the new people have to come in at a lower wage here,” he said.
Heiman said GE has invested more than $130 million and created more than 400 new jobs in Grove City in the past three years.
The plant has been operating here for more than 42 years.
“We deal directly with our Grove City employees, and they have always received good wages and benefits, and we don’t expect anything different,” she said.
