The plant's new owners, Wabtec, has declined thus far to honor UE's contract with GE—even on a temporary, 30-day basis, as proposed by the union. The company has, instead, tried to impose immediate changes to employees' working conditions. Members quickly objected to Wabtec's insistence on such things as "mandatory overtime and arbitrary schedules. Those changes include a proposal for wage cuts of up to 38 percent for new hires and recalled workers, creating what union representatives such as Scott Slawson, president of UE Local 506, have called a "permanent second tier of lower wages."
Union spokesperson Jonathan Kissam, explained that UE members were especially averse to any two-tier wage proposal because "they see two tiers as selling out their own children and the Erie community...People would rather work than be on strike, but they're not willing to hand every aspect of their life over to the boss, and they're not willing to create a permanent underclass of low wage workers," Kissam insisted.
As well-paid, older workers retire, they are then replaced with less established employees who know they'll never make the same money as their veteran counterparts. This has the potential to create discord within the workers and the union.
Brad McCurdy is a licensed journeyman electrician who has worked at the Erie manufacturing plant for the past 14 years. "This is corporate greed and union-busting 101." He points to Wabtec's significant profit margins and insists that the union's willingness to strike is "directly tied to preserving jobs for our community, and preserving family-sustaining wages."
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/03/02/pennsylvania-workers-are-waging-biggest-us-manufacturing-strike-trump-era
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