Grievance Strike

UE Local 506 Members
Strike Over Subcontracting

ERIE, PA — On Wednesday, May 30, the 3,800 members of UE Local 506 conducted a grievance strike against subcontracting by the General Electric Company. Workers on each of the three shifts at the Erie plant stayed off the job for four hours to protest the company’s failure to resolve a grievance – Case N.D. # 06-24 – over subcontracting of union work.

Under the UE-GE National Agreement, UE members have the right to strike on a grievance that has not been resolved through the three-step grievance procedure. At issue in this case is the company’s farm-out of locomotive wire harness work from Building 18-Control. "We feels this work should and could have been done in-house by UE members," said Local 506 Business Agent Pat Rafferty. "This is one of the issues we’ve been discussing in national negotiations."