LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Members of the International Union of Electrical Workers-Communication Workers of America Local 83761 at GE Appliances here rejected the bosses’ new contract offer by 73% Dec. 11. The current contract expires at the end of the year.
The company said they were deeply disappointed with the results of the vote, according to WDRB News.
GE, which manufactures dishwashers, refrigerators and other large appliances, employs over 5,000 workers here. The company was sold to Haier, a Chinese company, in 2016. Haier reported over $2 billion in profit in the first three quarters of 2024.
“We’re not asking to be rich. We’re just asking to live,” Jason Gaines, a 13-year employee, told the Louisville Courier-Journal at a union rally Sept. 14. “I don’t want to worry about working 30 hours of overtime a week just to pay my bills.”
The starting wage is $17.52 an hour for first-shift “Flex” workers, the lowest of the five tiers for production workers. “The company says if you want to make more money you can work more overtime,” Mike Portwood told the Militant. “I’ve worked at GE for 10 years and I make $23 an hour. I worked 18 days in a row one time. That takes away time from my family.”
Portwood said many workers can’t afford cars. “When the shift change comes you see Ubers picking people up.”
Susan Bailey, with 29 years in the plant, told the Courier-Journal that she had to take a second job at Walmart to get by, even though she makes “top-tier” wages.
Health care is also an issue. At the rally Local President Dino Driskell said 30% of the union’s members have to “turn down their health care because it’s too expensive.”
GE has hired a lot of workers from Cuba, Nepal, Africa, Afghanistan and other countries over the last several years. Many of these workers “are real fighters,” said Aaron Little, a former GE worker fighting to get his job back after he was fired for union activity. “Some of them quit because they refuse to accept the conditions in the plant. The company uses the fact we speak different languages to try and divide us.” Little worked at GE for 11 years and was an assistant chief steward.
There’s a lot of turnover because of the low wages and poor working conditions. Driskell told the Courier-Journal that more than 2,000 workers have less than two years in the plant.
In a Dec. 12 letter to the membership after the vote rejecting the contract offer, the local union leadership said it would “try and get the company back to the negotiating table as soon as possible,” but to “be prepared to strike” if the company refuses.
“We don’t want a strike,” said Portwood, “But we will if we feel it’s necessary.”