GE workers asked to train workers in overseas plants
Talks broke off between Unifor and General Electric on Tuesday as the two sides tried to arrive at a closure agreement for the plant, states an internal memo from the union to its members.
General Electric will close its Peterborough motors plant in September 2018, putting 358 people out of work.
The plant has been open 125 years. But in August, GE said production has decreased by 60 per cent over the last four years due to low demand from the global markets.
On Monday, union representatives sat down with the company to discuss issues such as severance for the motors plant employees – but talks broke down, says the memo, “after a day and a half of moving backward, not forward.”
One of the most contentious issues is apparently an expectation from the company that soon-to-be-jobless Peterborough workers should help train colleagues at GE plants overseas to do their work, states the memo.
While GE plans to move the work currently being done in Peter borough to plants in Brazil and France, Unifor doesn’t think its members should be expected to “transfer their knowledge” to workers there.
“Our message was, if our members are the experts then keep the plant open and do the work here,” states the memo.
No Unifor representatives were available for comment Tuesday night.
But one GE employee who will lose her job said she agrees “110 per cent” with the union’s position on the matter.
“Brazil and France already have GE plants and those plants remain open. So why do they need our experienced employees to train or help them out?” wrote Aprile Wood in a direct message to The Examiner on Tuesday night.
“Sorry, it’s not part of my job to train employees from a different GE company that should already be qualified themselves.”
Kim Warburton, vice-president of communications for GE, issued the following written statement about it Tuesday night:
“GE and Unifor are in negotiations regarding the pending cessation of manufacturing at the Peterborough facility. As discussions are underway it is inappropriate to comment on the issues raised in the meetings. GE remains committed to working with our Peterborough employees during this period of transition and has already commenced career retraining initiatives.”
Yet it appears the union is seeking help from Queen’s Park as manufacturing wraps up at the plant: the memo says the union has a meeting planned with provincial government officials the week of Dec. 4.
“Whatever answers or information we get from that meeting will instruct how we move ahead,” it says.
Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister and Peterborough MPP Jeff Leal said Tuesday night he couldn’t comment on the closure agreement that GE is developing with its employees.
But he did say any meeting at Queen’s Park would likely involve officials from the Ministry of Economic Growth and Development.
Further information from that Ministry may be available on Wednesday, a spokesperson stated in an email late on Tuesday evening.
Wood has worked for a bit more than 11 years at GE; she’s currently in large motors, in the punch press department.
She said in a series of direct messages that she’s about to move on to a new job that’s been offered to her. Some of her colleagues have found new jobs and have already moved on from GE, she said.
Meanwhile it’s unclear what will happen to the GE buildings, once the plant ceases manufacturing. In August, Warburton said it was too early to say.
But she said recent investments in renovating the inside of the plant, with some government assistance, helped keep the plant going for awhile longer than otherwise.
Yet Wood said major repairs are still needed in the buildings.
“GE Peterborough is falling apart – that’s why we’re closing,” she said. “We have netting up in our department over our heads protecting us from parts of the ceiling falling on us.”
Meanwhile, many former GE employees are still hoping to receive compensation from Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) over cancer they say they got from exposure to toxins in the plants.
A rash of cancer cases started appearing among former GE employees in the 1990s. Over the last 12 years, several workers applied for WSIB compensation but many were rejected, apparently due to a lack of medical evidence linking cancer to chemicals used at GE.
But 250 cases that were previously rejected for compensation are now being re-examined by WSIB in light of new medical studies.
As of last week, 24 files that were previously rejected had been accepted by WSIB, and a further 10 had been re-examined and still won’t be compensated. The review of all 250 files is expected to continue into 2018.