Across the United States, the strike shut factories that produce motors, turbines, generators, locomotives, jet engines, and household appliances, among many other products.

On the second day, the members of Local 201 of the International Union of Electrical Workers-Communications Workers of America (IUE-CWA) wound black tape around picket signs and strike buttons to show respect for a striking worker killed when a police car hit her in Louisville, Kentucky.

Kjeston "Michelle" Rodgers, 40, was struck by a police cruiser driven by officer Roy Truax shortly before 5 a.m. on January 14 as she was crossing the street from the picket line to her parked car. She was carrying a picket sign when she was hit. "We’ll fight on in her memory," said Pat Ryan, a shop steward who has worked at the Lynn plant for 23 years.

Members of the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers also joined the national two-day action.

Several strikers saw the stoppage as preparation for a confrontation around the contract when it expires in June. While this was the first national strike against the giant company since 1969, the workers said, they themselves had joined some 2,500 GE unionists in stopping work for four days last November, protesting job subcontracting, outsourcing, and the company’s announced plan to lay off as many as 2,800 of its 26,000 employees worldwide.

"They’ve done something they’ve never done before," Ryan said, referring to the company’s takeback demands. "They’ve opened up medical benefits, co-payments, and deductibility before the contract expired. GE made $16 billion in profits last year, but they have no money for health care for us," he said.

Union officials estimate that the increase will take an extra $300–$400 per year out of workers’ pockets at a time when the company is posting record profits.

"We feel we have to do something now or it will just get worse," said picket Peter Allouise, Jr., who has worked at the Lynn plant for 25 years.  
 
Community rally for health care
On the strike’s second day in Lynn the GE unionists joined a "community rally for health care reform." In addition to IUE-CWA Local 201, the rally sponsors included Service Employees International Union Local 285, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, Lynn Health Task Force, and Mass Senior Action. The main slogan presented by rally speakers was "Health Care for All...Not Health Cuts at GE!"

A flyer for the rally painted a graphic picture of a deteriorating national public health system. It noted that 2.2 million retired people have been thrown out of health maintenance organizations (HMOs). Some 50,000 low-income people in Massachusetts will lose their health coverage April 1, it stated, while 41 million people in the United States have no medical insurance. The World Health Organization now ranks U.S. health care as no. 37 in the world.

More than 200 people took part in the rally. Peggy O’Malley, a member of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, encouraged people to join the fight for universal health care. She thanked the GE workers for the courage and leadership they had shown.

The strikers distributed a leaflet highlighting the situation of retirees at the company. The former workers’ monthly pension after an average 34.5 years of service works out at $683. Several retirees joined the picket line at the plant gate.

"We may be on strike in June," said Ric Casilli, Local 201 business agent. The likely issues of dispute in the contract, he said, are job security, health care, and pensions.

At GE’s plant in East Cleveland, Ohio, workers on picket duty cut wood for the burn barrel, brewed coffee in the hastily erected shelter, and marched in front of the plant entrance. Several strikers waved to the operator of a large snow plow blaring his horn in support, like many other drivers in passing vehicles. As in Massachusetts, many workers saw the action as a buildup to a confrontation in June.

Mike Fitzsimmons, a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees Local 168-C in Cleveland, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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