GE's Workers Await Fate

Source: Erie Times-News)By Jim Martin, Erie Times-News, Pa.
Sep. 17--GE Transportation announced plans Tuesday to eliminate 1,480 jobs, but the task of sorting out who stays and who doesn't is just beginning.
What is clear is that the 1,200 temporary lack-of-work layoffs the company announced in February will in no way serve as a blueprint for determining who receives a pink slip now.
Of the 50 salaried positions that will be cut, about half already have been identified and notified, said Shaun Francis, the company's general manager of human resources. The rest will be identified over the next two weeks, he said.
On the hourly side of the business, where 1,430 jobs will be eliminated, the company must first determine the number of cuts it wants to make from each job category.
From that number, the company will subtract any employees in that category who elect to retire.
Under a special early-retirement plan that's available to the company's union employees during a work-force reduction, workers who are between the ages of 55 and 60 and have 25 or more years service are eligible for early retirement. ......read MORE
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