Hundreds of unionised GE Aerospace workers in in the Cincinnati area went on strike on 28 August after the United Auto Workers’ (UAW) local chapter rejected the company’s latest offer for an employment contract.
The striking employees are represented by the 640-member UAW Local 647. They work at GE’s Evendale (Ohio) site north of Cincinnati and its Erlanger (Kentucky) parts facility adjacent to Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky International airport.
The Erlanger site ships parts for spare and new engines, according to GE’s website. The Evendale workers support GE’s “marine and industrial engine production”, the company says.
“We are proud of our last offer we tabled for our 640 UAW-represented employees and are disappointed the Detroit-based UAW leaders have decided to strike before our employees have an opportunity to vote,” GE says. “We remain focused on serving our customers and have activated a detailed contingency plan, deploying experienced and qualified GE Aerospace employees to ensure continued operations with the highest levels of safety and quality.”
GE adds that it remains “operational today at both sites”.
The company on 27 August presented to union leaders a proposed three-year contract that would have provided union members with a 12% general pay increase over the deal’s term. GE said employees would have received an average $29,000 additional compensation during those three years.
The proposal would have also reinstated an annual cost-of-living adjustment pegged to inflation, GE says.
But union bosses say GE has offered insufficient pay increases and that its proposals would significantly hike members’ health insurance costs.
“For months, [the] Local 647 bargaining team has been hard at work negotiating to win a contract for our members that truly represents the value they bring to the company,” UAW president Shawn Fain said on 27 August. “The company is still offering minimal increases that are not enough for our members… It appears the company is more interested in trying to lowball our members.”
At the end of 2024, some 3,700 of GE’s 53,000 employees were represented by unions, according to company securities filings.
GE is the latest among several US aerospace companies to contend with strikes in the last year.
Machinists working on Boeing’s defence projects near St Louis walked off the job on 4 August and have not yet returned. Boeing also muddled through a nearly two-month strike late last year that brought its aircraft production sites in the Pacific Northwest to a halt.
Pratt & Whitney machinists went on strike for three weeks in May, and Textron Aviation’s operation was hobbled last year by a month-long machinists strike.
