GE employees urge company to use laid-off workers to make ventilators

The union representing General Electric (GE) workers on Monday demanded the company both use laid-off workers for the production of ventilators and provide better protections against the spread of novel coronavirus for employees.

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) and its industrial unit, the IUE-CWA, on Monday demanded that every worker entering a plant be subject to mandatory temperature checks as well as higher pay for those continuing to work during the pandemic, the Boston Business Journal reported.

Several GE workers also protested in favor of the demands in front of the company’s headquarters in the Fort Point neighborhood of Boston, maintaining a distance of at least six feet between one another.

The unions asked GE to bring back the roughly 2,600 aviation employees the company said it will lay off last week to manufacture ventilators for coronavirus patients.

“Our country depends on these highly skilled workers, and now they wonder why they are facing layoffs, instead of having the opportunity to use their unbelievable skills to help save lives,” CWA President Chris Shelton told reporters Monday, according to the publication.

GE is set to partner with Ford to produce ventilators, with the company’s health care division saying it has doubled ventilator production capacity since the beginning of the outbreak and plans to double it again by the middle of the year.

The company’s Lynn, Mass., plant, which produces military aircraft, is considered essential by the federal government and has remained open amid the pandemic.

Union leaders have accused management of failing to properly protect workers, with the local IUE-CWA chapter saying a member was sent home with symptoms and that it served notice to GE for “fail[ing] so far to ensure that work buildings are thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.”

The company, meanwhile, has argued it has made special efforts to address the pandemic in Lynn, including doubling its cleaning budget.

“In accordance with guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, we’ve taken a number of preventive and protective measures to ensure the health and safety of our employees as we continue to support our customers during this uncertain time,” GE spokesman Jeff Caywood said in a statement.

“We have implemented additional, COVID-related paid leave policies and continue to work with individual employees who may have unique risk factors or situations,” he added.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) expressed support for the GE workers in a Monday afternoon tweet, writing “No more layoffs, outsourcing, and tax dodging, @generalelectric. Put Americans to work manufacturing the life-saving ventilators we need.”

I stand with GE’s workers who are calling on the company to convert its factories to produce ventilators.

No more layoffs, outsourcing, and tax dodging, @generalelectric. Put Americans to work manufacturing the life-saving ventilators we need. https://t.co/wCbDrCmWZ9

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 30, 2020