In These Times
08-30-2013, 11:29 AM
“Who are we? UE!” chanted around 200 protestors outside the Chicago headquarters of General Electric Transportation Division last Monday.
GE executives did not need the introduction. They’ve faced off with feisty UE—the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (http://www.ueunion.org/)—for most of the union’s 77-year history. And since last year, UE has worked hard to save nearly 1,000 member jobs at the big GE locomotive factory in Erie, Pa. from threatened layoffs.
So it was no surprise that when UE held its national convention this week in Chicago, the union brought the fight to the corporation’s doorstep. Local union president Scott Duke talked his way through the office building’s security to deliver petitions, signed by 10,000 Erie community residents, demanding that the company save those local jobs instead of transferring the work to a non-union shop in Texas.
Had GE execs or onlookers needed a briefing on UE, the union would probably describe itself as it typically does: “the rank-and-file union,” that is, democratic and member-run. Passersby in Chicago might also recognize the UE as the union that twice occupied a local window and door factory (http://inthesetimes.com/article/14972/at_last_occupiers_turned_owners_celebrate_factory_opening/) in a fight to save workers’ jobs, ultimately helping workers form a cooperative to run the factory. Or they might be surprised to find it’s the union supporting workers leading a wave of strikes and protests (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/21/1134645/-Chicago-teachers-join-Elwood-IL-warehouse-workers-to-confront-Walmart#) in a giant complex of warehouses near Chicago that serves Wal-Mart and other major retailers.
More... (http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/15539/ue_protests_ge_wal_mart_and_mcdonalds/)
GE executives did not need the introduction. They’ve faced off with feisty UE—the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (http://www.ueunion.org/)—for most of the union’s 77-year history. And since last year, UE has worked hard to save nearly 1,000 member jobs at the big GE locomotive factory in Erie, Pa. from threatened layoffs.
So it was no surprise that when UE held its national convention this week in Chicago, the union brought the fight to the corporation’s doorstep. Local union president Scott Duke talked his way through the office building’s security to deliver petitions, signed by 10,000 Erie community residents, demanding that the company save those local jobs instead of transferring the work to a non-union shop in Texas.
Had GE execs or onlookers needed a briefing on UE, the union would probably describe itself as it typically does: “the rank-and-file union,” that is, democratic and member-run. Passersby in Chicago might also recognize the UE as the union that twice occupied a local window and door factory (http://inthesetimes.com/article/14972/at_last_occupiers_turned_owners_celebrate_factory_opening/) in a fight to save workers’ jobs, ultimately helping workers form a cooperative to run the factory. Or they might be surprised to find it’s the union supporting workers leading a wave of strikes and protests (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/21/1134645/-Chicago-teachers-join-Elwood-IL-warehouse-workers-to-confront-Walmart#) in a giant complex of warehouses near Chicago that serves Wal-Mart and other major retailers.
More... (http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/15539/ue_protests_ge_wal_mart_and_mcdonalds/)