Eastern Railroad Discussion > Erie-Times News: End of an Era

Interesting information in this article:

https://www.goerie.com/news/20190224/for-erie-end-of-era



 

Bernie Sanders brought this up in the CNN Town Hall tonight.  Workers getting screwed while the Exec’s walk away with millions.  

Sphogger

Strike began shortly after midnight, this morning.

The UE and GE had a rough couple of decades.

I posted about the boasts of the UE guy that the union could shut down Erie any time they wanted. That was before the Fort Worth plant was announced.

How is the UE represented GE Grove City engine plant making out?

Posted from Android

According to Wabtec press releases, contracts are in place at all
facilities except Erie.  Grove City started out as a non-union plant,
and ultimately became union under the UE.  It was a separate
local than Erie, with a separate contract; from what I've heard, labor
relations have been fairly smooth.  Maybe someone else can add more.

Wabtec is a vestige of one-time GE rival Westinghouse, from Pittsburgh. 

It is interesting that the article invokes the name of Thomas Edison with GE, but makes no mention of George Westinghouse, who was a genius in his own right.  An argument can be made that Westinghouse had as much or more impact on technology than Edison did. Edison was just a better self promoter.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/19 09:47 by radar.

Edison also crushed Tesla, who died a broken man. Edison didn't have the mathematical background to understand AC current, and so hated what he couldn't grasp.

GE/Wabtec Erie is on strike today:

https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2019/02/26/union-workers-strike-at-wabtecs-newly-acquired.html

"The union, which represents 1,700 workers at Wabtec’s (NYSE:WAB) newly acquired locomotive plant, are striking to push back against a plan they say includes mandatory overtime, wage reductions of up to 38 percent for recalled and newly hired workers, and the option to use temporary workers for up to 20 percent of the work in the plant."

Progress redux.

What orders are being processed by  Erie, or scheduled to be done there?  I know there's some export work.

Now that it's Wabtec, wonder how much business they could transfer to Boise.

Wonder if Wabtec is regretting letting Mountaintop go?  Probably not, because I doubt if there's anyone left who even remembers a Mountaintop manufacturing facility.

The question might be whether GE Fort Worth, Wabtec Boise and Wabtec SLP (Mexico) provide enough capacity to make Erie redundant.

terrybaker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wonder if Wabtec is regretting letting Mountaintop
> go?  Probably not, because I doubt if there's
> anyone left who even remembers a Mountaintop
> manufacturing facility.
>
> The question might be whether GE Fort Worth,
> Wabtec Boise and Wabtec SLP (Mexico) provide
> enough capacity to make Erie redundant.

It's a pretty safe bet that's what Wabtec is thinking.  Wabtec CEO was quoted as saying they'd pay for the merger through "sales synergies", moving production to lower cost areas, and "reducing the cost of quality".  I'd also bet that the Chicago functions will be moved to Wilmerding.  Hard to say about Grove City.

Other than the transportation group's HQ, does the unit have other businesses in Chicago?

Thanks

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Other than the transportation group's HQ, does the
> unit have other businesses in Chicago?
>
> Thanks

Just the HQ.  Part of Lorenzo Simonelli's move to get GET out of Erie.

According to the local TV stations, one of the provisions in the Wabtec offer was that the two tier wage system would apply to new hires AND any recalled employees already on the contract.   GE's had a significant number of layoffs, you can see how this would be an issue.
   

 

randgust Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> According to the local TV stations, one of the
> provisions in the Wabtec offer was that the two
> tier wage system would apply to new hires AND any
> recalled employees already on the contract.  
> GE's had a significant number of layoffs, you can
> see how this would be an issue.
>    
>
>  
That could be a huge issue for the membership.  Bad enough being out on the line, but coming back to a 30%+ pay cut would be salt in the wounds.

 

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wabtec is a vestige of one-time GE rival
> Westinghouse, from Pittsburgh.

Not really, Joe. Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO) was founded in 1869, more than 20 years before the Westingouse Electric Corporation (which is the company most people used to think of -- in North America, at least -- when "Westinghouse" was mentioned). Until 1908, the two companies were connected, but at that time the Electric Corp. was overstretched financially, and George Westinghouse was forced to plead with local bankers for assistance; these bankers had it in for Westinghouse, because about seven years previous, when they sought to take over control of  Westinghouse Electric from George, he had told them "No way", and raised the money he needed in Europe. But in 1908, the European option was not available, so to save the company, George was forced to hand over control of "the Electric" to the Mellons and other local financial tycoons. George remained as a figurehead President, but by 1910 he had had enough of not being his own boss, and resigned from that position, remaining only as in control of WABCO. From 1908 on, the only link between Air Brake and Electric Cos. was that the Chairman of the Board of each company was also a Member of the Board of the other -- and even that fragile link was broken in the 1960s, IIRC. 

Bottom line, WABCO came to be 20 years before "the Electric", and has existed for 30 years longer, since "the Electric" was merged into CBS, and its remaining manufacturing operations were sold to Siemens, Toshiba, and others, so that WABCO could more correctly be described as the one surviving Westingouse company.

Roger Lewis (airbrakegeezer)