Vicky Mullins helps assemble freezer fans which are then immediately installed in the refrigerators. Staff photo by David Snodgress
Union members worry about what will happen to their union-negotiated benefits, especially those relating to plant closures, if the company that negotiated those benefits is no longer in the picture.
As things stand today, “our sales are about half what we actually make. Our warehouses are filling up,” said Bill Fairbairn, president of Local 2249 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents the plant’s hourly workers. “The union leadership thinks this plant is in serious trouble,” he said.
Union representatives met about a week and a half ago with appliance division managers from divisional headquarters at Louisville’s Appliance Park to discuss the pending sale and the plant’s future. “We told them we didn’t see a future, and they pretty much agreed with that,” Fairbairn said. But the union came away from the talk with the clear impression that despite that, “GE has no intention of closing the facility at this point.”
“What we want to know now is why GE just doesn’t close it — do the right thing — before Electrolux takes over.”
Changing tastes, new environment
Currently, union leaders say, the plant turns out just a few more than 600 refrigerators a day, when at one time it produced 3,200 daily.
They don’t see any possibility of such production returning.
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