Bargaining cools strike talk at GE

LYNN – The threat of a strike at General Electric’s aviation plant in Lynn has receded as union representatives and GE officials say they are in talks over what the union has called excessive outsourcing of jobs.Union representatives and GE officials met Wednesday morning to discuss union demands relating to shipping key union jobs north to Maine or abroad to Korea. The negotiations went well enough that the union has no immediate strike plans, even after issuing two strike notices to GE last week, said Ric Casilli, the business agent of the International Union of Electrical Workers Local 201, which represents Lynn’s GE plant.”There was enough progress that we agreed to continue to meet over both notices,” Casilli said Wednesday afternoon.The union threatened to strike last week after representatives outlined what they say are problems with GE’s outsourcing process: The company has not hired workers in certain parts of the plant that are backlogged and instead farms out work without properly notifying the union when it does, Casilli said.It was the first strike notice issued by the union in at least five years, Casilli said.But on Wednesday, GE officials agreed to a union demand to create a joint subcommittee of union members and company officials that will meet weekly to analyze the company’s farm-out process, Casilli said.”They’ve agreed in principle to most of our proposal on this overhaul,” Casilli said.GE, however, did not agree to union demands to hire workers to replace certain positions left empty since about 215 employees retired in 2012. The union had requested the company hire six or seven operators of a specific machine that cuts aircraft engine parts and hire more inspectors to calibrate gauges; jobs Casilli said are sometimes sent to Maine or elsewhere.Instead, Casilli said the union left the negotiating table requesting cost figures for the work done in Maine and a list of all the times GE has farmed out jobs in that specific department since July, 1, 2012. He said the union hopes to paint a better picture of just how often GE outsources jobs.”(GE officials) tried to imply that nothing’s going out, but we have some information there is a lot going out and we’re not being notified,” Casilli said.Casilli said the union is not happy with that portion of negotiations.”They’re just making more vague promises that they would honor the contract provisions,” he said. ” ? They have not really given us much in that area.”GE Spokesman Richard Gorham said the company provided counter proposals to the union’s demands.”There was some encouraging progress but no resolution,” he wrote in an email to The Daily Item.The union and GE officials agreed to meet Monday afternoon to continue negotiations.Amber Parcher can be reached at [email protected].