Protest GE's Attack on Retirees, June 21 2019, Cincinnati Ohio
Today, GE Retirees lead a demonstration outside GE Global Operations in Cincinnati, Ohio. They were supported by the Coordinated Bargaining Committee, including 201 delegates Bill Maher, Adam Kaszynski, and Freddy Russell. Retirees built GE, and the Company totally disregards their important contributions and attacks their benefits. We say NO MORE! Watch the video of the rally here.
GE Retirees Speak Up!
“When you worked at GE you gave the company not only your time but your body and the best of your years. In exchange for what we thought we were promised. A fair wage, a fair pension, and good healthcare… After 30 or 40 years of physically demanding work, most retirees from GE don’t retire in good health and we rely on our healthcare. The healthcare we were promised when we walked out the door the last time. We gave our bodies building this company in exchange for a fair wage, a fair pension, and a lifelong high-quality health care that we were promised and that we earned. And now they are trying to take it away. Their broken promise is what must unite us together. We are stronger together. We must speak up. If not now when. We must all say to GE “enough is enough!” We must no longer stand by silently as the 1% continues to take from workers and retirees. Reducing benefits while reaping billions of dollars in profit. Paying millions to their top executives like Jeff Immelt. In our country one tenth of 1% controls 90% of all assets in America, and still they are not satisfied. And they never will be. As long as we accept the greedy appetite of corporate America, the 1% will continue to look to reduce and take from us – workers and retirees. Take from us our earned and promised benefits to meet the demands of their greedy self-indulgence. Somehow, they need more, and we ought to be able to get by on less. They have proven time and time again, they care nothing about their workers. Never have, and never will. Some workers are under the illusion that they give us benefits out of the goodness of their hearts. Those of us who have been around a while we know that’s not true. They have no heart. They have given us only what we demanded at the table and what we can take. And now, now if we are going to keep what we have, we have to be willing to fight... first it was with our pensions, and their refusals to grant us cost of living adjustments despite their increased profits. Then they took away our post 65 supplemental healthcare. They shoved us into this private exchange, and now they want to take away the $1000 healthcare stipend. This isn’t right, and we won’t stand for it… Without cost of living adjustments to our pensions, compounded by rising healthcare costs, many GE retirees have been forced to decide between medication and food… I gave 40 years of my life to GE, retired thinking I had healthcare coverage for life. Now those 40 years of labor is catching up in my body… Who can ever retire with any sense of security unless we hold them accountable… Retirees built GE. And we must have our fair chance.”
John Lewis, IUE-CWA 761 Retiree with 40 years’ service at (former)GE Appliance Park, KY
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