Recent GE publications have left no doubt that the Company is after yet another round of medical insurance cost shifting onto the backs of GE workers in the upcoming national negotiations. This is despite the fact that our out-of-pocket medical expenses have skyrocketed in recent years while the company’s aggregate costs have substantially declined.

The average GE worker with dependents in Health Care Preferred (HCP) is now paying about $700 a year in contributions alone! This amount includes 9.5 cents in "diverted" COLA that never made it into our paychecks, but of course does not count the various and sundry co-pays that we’re also stuck with.

For those in the traditional Comprehensive Medical Benefits (CMB) the story is even worse. The average worker’s CMB contributions now exceed $900 a year for family coverage. Add in deductibles and the total is over $1,300 annually. If our insurance were a patient, it would definitely be on the critical list.

As for the Company, their insurance bill has sharply declined since peaking in 1992. This has been accomplished primarily by extracting more profits from fewer workers; from relentless cost shifting to employees; and by enticing or otherwise driving nearly 80% of the workforce into HCP which costs less, and which to this day is not even fully negotiated by the Union.

GE's own figures tell the story:

United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)
One Gateway Center • Pittsburgh, PA 15222 • 412-471-8919
http://www.ranknfile-ue.org