GE strike averted for now 2,700 employees at Appliance Park

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.whas11.com/topstories/stories/061507whasmjdTopGEStrike.7575bcd.html

GE strike averted

03:27 PM EDT on Friday, June 15, 2007

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Despite threats by GE workers, they have decided to stay on the job at Appliance Park today.

But just because employees didn't walk out today doesn't mean they won't walk off the job this weekend when their contract officially ends.

“I guess relieved. Everybody doesn’t wanna miss any of their wages out,” said GE employee David Hostetler. “It’s not surprising. One day you’re gonna walk out the next day, you’re not.”

Two thousand seven hundred employees at Appliance Park were waiting for word Friday morning of a strike. Had the mooted 9:30 walkout occurred, the facility would have shut down.

“It’s a big thing. And somebody’s gotta take a stand, and I hope it’s here,” said retired GE employee Bob Davis. “We went through a 101-day strike in 1969, and we were given $12 a week, OK, to live on, and I had four kids and a wife. And we made it.”

The strike would have been over five grievances filed by union employees against the company. That’s a completely issue than the national contract negotiations taking place in New York.

The union contract expires at midnight on Sunday.