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CNN Live Today

GE Strike

Aired January 14, 2003 - 10:12   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Tragedy to tell you about in the midst of a national strike. Thousands of General Electric workers around the country are staging a two-day walkout. They're protesting health care costs. But as strikers walked the picket line today, one worker became a victim.
Our Whitney Casey is following the story in New York today.

Whitney, hello.

WHITNEY CASEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

And a cold morning here. It's about two degrees here, and these workers have been out here on the picket line all morning since 4:30. About 2,000 hearing in Schenectady, and about 17,5500 nationwide. Now that's a small percentage of GE's global workforce at 320,000 people.

Now, as you said, today's strike has not occurred without incident. Earlier this morning, at about 4:00 a.m. Louisville, Kentucky, a woman, a striker for GE, was killed. Police say it was an accident. They say the woman, the 40-year-old, was hit accidentally by a police car. That's still under investigation.

But here in Schenectady, things have been very calm. As we said, they are protesting those increased health care costs.

And joining me now is Andy Newinsky (ph). He is one of the shop stewards. Andy, you've worked for GE for 30 years, you have a family of five. How much do you think your health care co-payments are going up?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the company announced what they were going to do, I sat down and figured what it would cost my family based on last year's bills. If everything stays the same, it's going to over $1,000 increase out of my pocket.

CASEY: Wow. Now you said earlier that you see your company with record profits in the fourth quarter. You talked about Jack Welch's compensation. You don't want to foot the bill. A lot of these guys out here, it's been a contentious issue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. We've tried to do several things with the company. We offered to get involved with the health care problem in America, because it's not just our problem, it's everybody in America's problem. We talked about lobbying Congress and doing things like that. They didn't seem to be interested. We talked about increasing the amount of money we pay per week for health care benefits. They knew what they were looking for, and it would have been easy to come up with a figure times employees. They chose not to go that route either. They said they'd increase the co-pay, and we feel that's a form discrimination against our people that are sick and ill.

CASEY: Thank you. We'll let you hit the picket line again. Now as Andy said, what he said, he's echoing what the company says, actually, that it is an issue nationwide. GE cited a recent health care industry study that says over 75 percent of companies like GE, the larger companies, are increasing their co-pays for their employees. They also say that, yes, they are a profitable company. But to keep the profits up, they have to keep costs down, Daryn. And this time, they say, their health care costs are the highest costs they have right now -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Whitney Casey in Schenectady, New York, thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired January 14, 2003 - 10:12   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Tragedy to tell you about in the midst of a national strike. Thousands of General Electric workers around the country are staging a two-day walkout. They're protesting health care costs. But as strikers walked the picket line today, one worker became a victim.
Our Whitney Casey is following the story in New York today.

Whitney, hello.

WHITNEY CASEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

And a cold morning here. It's about two degrees here, and these workers have been out here on the picket line all morning since 4:30. About 2,000 hearing in Schenectady, and about 17,5500 nationwide. Now that's a small percentage of GE's global workforce at 320,000 people.

Now, as you said, today's strike has not occurred without incident. Earlier this morning, at about 4:00 a.m. Louisville, Kentucky, a woman, a striker for GE, was killed. Police say it was an accident. They say the woman, the 40-year-old, was hit accidentally by a police car. That's still under investigation.

But here in Schenectady, things have been very calm. As we said, they are protesting those increased health care costs.

And joining me now is Andy Newinsky (ph). He is one of the shop stewards. Andy, you've worked for GE for 30 years, you have a family of five. How much do you think your health care co-payments are going up?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the company announced what they were going to do, I sat down and figured what it would cost my family based on last year's bills. If everything stays the same, it's going to over $1,000 increase out of my pocket.

CASEY: Wow. Now you said earlier that you see your company with record profits in the fourth quarter. You talked about Jack Welch's compensation. You don't want to foot the bill. A lot of these guys out here, it's been a contentious issue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. We've tried to do several things with the company. We offered to get involved with the health care problem in America, because it's not just our problem, it's everybody in America's problem. We talked about lobbying Congress and doing things like that. They didn't seem to be interested. We talked about increasing the amount of money we pay per week for health care benefits. They knew what they were looking for, and it would have been easy to come up with a figure times employees. They chose not to go that route either. They said they'd increase the co-pay, and we feel that's a form discrimination against our people that are sick and ill.

CASEY: Thank you. We'll let you hit the picket line again. Now as Andy said, what he said, he's echoing what the company says, actually, that it is an issue nationwide. GE cited a recent health care industry study that says over 75 percent of companies like GE, the larger companies, are increasing their co-pays for their employees. They also say that, yes, they are a profitable company. But to keep the profits up, they have to keep costs down, Daryn. And this time, they say, their health care costs are the highest costs they have right now -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Whitney Casey in Schenectady, New York, thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com