General Electric Company Records
Collection Number: 5331
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library
Title:
General Electric Company Records,
1938-1967
Collection Number:
5331
Creator:
General Electric
Company
Quantity:
2.7 linear ft.
Forms of Material:
Records (documents).
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor- Management Documentation and
Archives, Cornell University Library
Abstract:
U.S. NLRB decision on General Electric and International
Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers 1960 Contract
Negotiations.
Language:
Collection material in English
At the time of these negotiations, General Electric Company was the fourth largest
industrial corporation in the United States. It manufactured over 200,000 individual
products ranging from toasters to turbines.
Approximately 120,000 of its 250,000 employees were represented by labor
organizations. There were no nationally certified unions or multi-plant units in the
company, each union being represented on a plant by plant basis. The company
conducted national bargaining with three of the one hundred odd unions representing
it's workers, these being the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of
America, (UE), the Pattern Makers League of North America, and the International
Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, (IUE). The latter union was
certified as bargaining agent for approximately 70,000 G.E. employees in 1950 as a
result of the expulsion of the UE from the Congress of Industrial Organizations for
alleged communist activities. One year contracts were successfully negotiated
between the company and the IUE between 1950 and 1955. In 1955 the parties entered
into a five year agreement which included a wage escalator clause and provisions for
a reopening of the contract in 1958 on the question of employment security. The
contract terms set forth by the company in the 1955 agreement were apparently
regretted during the period of economic decline that began in 1957. This attitude
was reflected in the hard economic line taken by the company in the 1958 bargaining
session, which ended in a stalemate. The stage was thus set for the 1960 contract
negotiations, the company intending to keep costs down while the union hoped to
recoup the losses it suffered in 1958.
THE 1960 NEGOTIATIONS
Preparations for the negotiations commenced at meetings between company and union
officials on January 26, April 1 and April 26 at which time the company supplied the
union with information and materials deemed vital to the impending negotiations. It
was agreed at these meetings that negotiations of the employment security issue
would open on June 13, approximately two months before the contract date for the
opening of formal negotiations. The union presented the full slate of its demands at
the June 13 meeting and requested that full negoitations commence at an earlier date
than scheduled.
Formal negotiations between the parties opened on July 19 and continued through 45
meetings, ending on October 22, after a three week strike. The I.U.E. filed charges
against the company before the National Labor Relations Board on September 21,
October 4, October 14, 1960 and March 16, 1961 charging the company with unfair
labor practices under sections 8(a) 1, 3 and 5, and sections 2 (6) and (7) of the
National Labor Relations Act.
The specific charges against the company under Section 8 (a) (7) (to interfere with,
restrain or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in Section 7),
stemmed from the company's policy of bargaining with local units in derogation of
the union's status as national bargaining agent. Section 8 (a) (5) (to refuse to
bargain collectively with representatives of the employees) was allegedly violated
by the company's refusal to supply vacation and pension information to the union
during the course of negotiations. Section 8 (a) (3) (discrimination in regard to
hire or tenure of employment or any term or conditions of employment to encourage or
discourage membership in any labor organization) was con- sidered to have been
violated when the employer refused to reinstate twenty workers who had been replaced
during the strike. These violations were incurred by the employer as defined under
sections 2 (6) and (7) of the N.L.R.A.
On April 1, 1963 N.L.R.B. trial Examiner Arthur Leff issued an intermediate report
finding the company guilty of the aforementioned violations and recommended that the
company cease and desist from such further activities. In addition to specific
charges, the examiner criticized the company's overall approach to and conduct of
bargaining. In finding such, he attached the cease and desist order to the
bargaining tactics, thereby ruling that the Bulwaristic strategy was not in the
interest of true collective bargaining. The ruling of the trial examiner was upheld
by a majority decision of the NLRB in its decision on December 6, 1964.
U.S. NLRB decision on General Electric and International Union of Electrical, Radio
and Machine Workers 1960 Contract Negotiations.
Included are transcripts of the proceedings before the trial examiner and the board;
materials detailing the prosecution of the case; the company's defense; and a
General Electric information kit.
Names:
United States. National Labor Relations Board.
General Electric Company
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of
America.
International Union of Electrical, Radio and
Machine Workers.
Subjects:
Arbitration, Industrial -- United States.
Electric industry workers -- United States.
Electric industry workers -- Labor unions --
United States.
Form and Genre Terms:
Records (documents)
Access Restrictions:
Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a
reference archivist for access to these materials.
Restrictions on Use:
This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet
and Procedures for Document Use.
Cite As:
General Electric Company Records #5331. Kheel Center for Labor-Management
Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.
|
Container
|
Description
|
Date
|
|
| Box 1 | Folder 1 | ||
|
321 pp.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 2 | ||
|
87 pp.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 3 | ||
|
52 pp.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 4 | ||
|
113 pp. 4 copies
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 5 | ||
|
49 pp.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 6 | ||
|
11 pp. 4 copies
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 7 | ||
|
8 pp.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 8 | ||
|
217 pp.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 9 | ||
|
100 pp.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 10 | ||
|
87 pp. 2 copies
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 11 | ||
|
78 pp. 2 copies
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 12 | ||
|
24 pp.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 13 | ||
|
Issued on December 16 at Press Conference in Washington and New York
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 14 | ||
| Box 1 | Folder 15 | ||
| Box 1 | Folder 16 | 1964 | |
|
Dated December 21, 1964.
|
|||
| Box 1 | Folder 17 | ||
| Box 1 | Folder 18 | 1964 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 10 | ||
| Box 2 | Folder 1 | 1948 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 18 | 1946-1948 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 17 | 1931 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 16 | ||
| Box 2 | Folder 15 | ||
| Box 2 | Folder 14 | 1938-1945 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 13 | ||
| Box 2 | Folder 20 | 1952 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 11 | ||
| Box 2 | Folder 21 | 1953 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 9 | ||
| Box 2 | Folder 8 | 1949 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 7 | ||
| Box 2 | Folder 6 | ||
| Box 2 | Folder 5 | ||
| Box 2 | Folder 4 | ||
| Box 2 | Folder 3 | ||
| Box 2 | Folder 2 | ||
| Box 2 | Folder 12 | ||
| Box 2 | Folder 30 | 1950 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 39 | 1967 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 38 | 1938 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 37 | 1938 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 36 | ||
| Box 2 | Folder 35 | 1946 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 34 | 1943 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 33 | 1949 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 19 | 1954 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 31 | 1944 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 40 | 1960 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 29 | ||
| Box 2 | Folder 28 | ||
| Box 2 | Folder 27 | ||
| Box 2 | Folder 26 | ||
| Box 2 | Folder 25 | ||
| Box 2 | Folder 24 | 1956-1960 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 23 | 1955 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 22 | 1954 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 32 | ||
| Box 3 | Folder 3 | 1960 | |
| Box 3 | Folder 2 | 1960 | |
| Box 3 | Folder 1 | 1957-1960 | |