Casey blasts General Electric over job losses

ERIE — U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, DPa., blasted General Electric on Tuesday morning for announcing plans to shut down Erie’s storied locomotive works, saying the company “worship[s] at the altar of the shareholder only.”

The company announced late last month that it would end locomotive production at the Erie facility, consolidating production with a facility in Texas. The company said the move was intended to help it “better compete in the increasingly competitive global rail market, and preserve U.S. jobs.”

That’s little consolation in Erie. The company has said the area’s Lawrence Park factory will lose some 575 jobs, though union officials said Tuesday that when related white-collar jobs are included,the loss would be twice that.

“GE has come to the workforce over and over again for concessions,” Mr. Casey told an appreciative crowd of officials at a union hall not far from the plant. “They’ll be coming to me as a member of the [Senate] Finance Committee … saying we need your help on tax reform.” But in deciding the plant’s future, he said, “it seems as if they are only reporting to one audience: the shareholders.”

“Corporations are decimating the middle class,” agreed Scott Slawson, president of the United Electrical Workers Local 506, which represents some affected employees. “They’re chasing lower-wage workers for no reason. It’s killing the tax base of the communities.”

Despite Mr. Casey’s tough language, he told reporters afterward that he had no direct leverage to prevent the layoffs, which are expected by late 2018, other than trying to hold the company to account for its previous claims to support Erie.

“We have to figure out a way to help these workers in an immediate and direct way,” he said.

The union also has few options: Although it can seek to negotiate the changes through a process known as “decision bargaining,” Mr. Slawson said previous uses of the process had saved no jobs.