In Louisville, 5,200 GE Appliance Workers Gear Up for a Fight
The bargaining team (pictured) rallied with hundreds of union members. Bargaining begins this month, and workers expect they may have to strike. Photo: Elaine Hui
Hundreds of workers who make dishwashers, refrigerators, washers and dryers, and other home appliances at GE Appliances in Louisville, Kentucky, rallied September 14 ahead of contract negotiations. Their contract, covering 5,200 workers, expires at the end of the year.
This plant complex, known as Appliance Park, is the only one unionized of nine GE Appliances manufacturing sites across the country and is its global headquarters. The union is part of the industrial division of the Communications Workers; bargaining starts October 14. Though Kentucky is a “right-to-work” state, union membership at the plant is over 90 percent.
GE Appliances workers are asking for higher wages, a cost-of-living adjustment, more paid vacation, and lower health care costs and no deductibles. They also want to eliminate the five-tier wage system.
The starting wage at Appliance Park is around $17.51—while workers say many companies in the city now offer $18 or more. Those in the lowest tier, Flex, do not get a raise in their first two years, except a 1 percent max cost-of-living adjustment.
The average wage at the company is just $18.50, IUE-CWA Local 761 President Dino Driskell told rally attendees: “We’re behind any other major company in this area. It’s time to change. It’s got to change.”
A union survey found that 98 percent of IUE-CWA members were willing to go on strike—and the union is asking members to save up for a fight.
“You have to be prepared,” Driskell told members at the rally. “So save every penny, nickel, dime, whatever you can, put it away in a jar.”
FIVE TIERS, MANY GIVEBACKS
General Electric sold GE Appliances in 2016 to Haier, a Chinese home appliance manufacturer that has been ranked the world’s largest. Haier also owns major brands in Europe and Asia.
This plant has been unionized since the 1950s. But in 2017, in their first negotiations with Haier-owned GEA, the workers lost many contractual rights, including overtime after eight hours (now it’s paid after 40 hours in a week) and guaranteed double-time pay on Sundays. The health care package deteriorated, with rising premiums and higher deductibles. And two more tiers were added, making it a five-tier workforce.
Prior to being acquired by Haier, GEA was in poor financial shape, especially after the outbreak of the global financial crisis. Wages at Appliance Park were frozen from 2008 to 2010, and again in 2016 and 2017.
But under its new owners, GEA has doubled its revenue since 2017, adding 4,000 manufacturing jobs in the U.S. and restructuring its supply chain to increase inventory turnover, according to the Wall Street Journal. Last year the company’s share of the home appliances market continued to grow, with sales of $11.3 billion, up 4.1 percent. The company boasts that its appliances are in half of all U.S. homes.
BLACKOUT GEA
Workers say GEA doesn’t live up to the “Best Workplace” title it received from Fortune magazine in 2022 and 2023.
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According to a union survey, 60 percent of the members have to work a second job, 77 percent cannot afford to buy a house, and 30 percent do not sign up for the health care plan because it’s too expensive.
Low wages, mandatory overtime, and no sick leave have led to an extremely high turnover rate. According to the union, in 2022, the company hired 6,000 new production workers while there were about only 5,500 production jobs. Driskell said 2,100 workers at Appliance Park have less than two years seniority.
Some workers say managers play favorites, workers who speak up about problems face retaliation, attendance points are applied unevenly, and part-timers and immigrant workers, mostly from Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East, are treated the worst.
“It’s not just the wages and benefits,” said Pam Taylor, who is on the negotiating committee. “The way that this company treats their employees and their policies is in large part why people are so ready” for a strike.
Before the rally, the union held a “Blackout GEA” action. Workers wore black shirts to show that without the workers GEA would go black. According to the organizing committee, more than 90 percent joined the action.
‘WE TAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER’
High inflation is one reason workers are determined to fight for a better deal. “Most of the people at GEA don’t even make enough money to rent a one-bedroom apartment in the city anymore,” said Oliver Smith, a member of the union organizing committee.
In the last round of negotiations in 2020, workers voted down the first two tentative agreements before finally ratifying the contract.
GEA workers have been emboldened by the recent contract gains of workers at other companies in the city—including Ford auto workers who were part of last year’s Stand-Up Strike and UPS Teamsters who mounted a strong strike threat. UPS has its biggest hub in Louisville.
Representatives of these and other unions showed up to the rally to support them.
“Corporate greed is all around you,” Auto Workers Local 862 President Todd Dunn told the crowd. “It’s been strong in the GEA building for I don’t know how many years. They have robbed from you, stole from you… We’ll be there for you.”
“We’ll do whatever we’ve got to do to get people through this strike,” Teamsters Local 89 Political Director Bill Miller told the rally participants. “We take care of each other. When you fight with one, you fight with us all, and we fight back.”
Elaine Hui is a professor of labor and employment relations and Asian studies at Penn State University. She is also director of the master’s program in labor and global workers’ rights, part of the Global Labour University network.
