After Paying Zero Income Taxes-GE Plans To Ask Its Union Workers To Make Wage & Benefits Concessions

[kpete]

After Paying Zero Income Taxes, GE Plans To Ask Its Union Workers To Make Wage And Benefits Concessions

Our guest blogger is Mike Elk, a freelance labor journalist and third generation union organizer based in Washington, D.C. You can follow him for more updates on Wisconsin on twitter at @MikeElk.

Last week, the New York Times reported that, despite making $14.2 billion in profits, General Electric, the largest corporation in the United States, paid zero U.S. taxes in 2010 and actually received tax credits of $3.2 billion dollars. The article noted that GE’s tax avoidance team is comprised of “former officials not just from the Treasury, but also from the I.R.S. and virtually all the tax-writing committees in Congress.”

After not paying any taxes and making huge profits, ThinkProgress has learned that General Electric is expected to ask its nearly 15,000 unionized employees in the United States to make major concessions.

This year, 14 unions representing more than 15,000 workers will negotiate a new master contract with General Electric. Among the major concessions GE has signaled that it will ask of union workers is the elimination of a defined contribution benefit pension for new employees, a move the company has already implemented for its non-union salaried employees. Likewise, GE is signaling to the union that it will ask for the elimination of current health insurance plans in favor of lower quality health saving accounts, a move the company has already implemented for non-union salaried employees as well.

In addition, General Electric may ask some workers for a wage freeze. Since the recession began in 2007, GE threatened to close plants in Schenectady, NY and Louisville, KY unless workers took wage concessions and adopted two-tier wage structure. In an interview with ThinkProgress, Mark Haller, a machinist at General Electric locomotive factory in Erie, PA, said:

The company I work for paid no federal taxes last year, but we all get these mass emails from GE asking us to call our Congressman to fund the useless, alternative GE engine for the F-35. As taxpayers, we are subsidizing the profits of this company to a huge extent and now after making the company even more profitable, they are asking us to make concessions on pensions, benefits, and perhaps even wages. You wonder why there is a jobs crisis in this country with a guy like G.E. CEO Jeff Immelt heading the President’s Jobs Commission.

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the rest (too many links):
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/28/ge-union-workers-cuts/

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Tell those CEO's and others at GE: Go fuck yourselves!

Goddamn it.

They have a lot of nerve.

Recommended.

:argh:

[rhett o rick]

30. Hey hey GE CEO Jeffery Immelt is Pres Obama's best buddy. nm

[leveymg]

33. After designing faulty Fukushima nuke plant, GE sues Japan for defamation of character.

Kinda the same sort of behavior, isn't it? Punish the victims, reward the predators.

[rhett o rick]

36. We are in the "End Game". Read the book by Derrick Jensen. nm

[truebrit71]

2. Unbelievable...just how fucking brazen can they be?

:grr:

[rhett o rick]

31. Especially in the light of their huge profits from the new war. GE the War Profiteer. nm

[rhett o rick]

37. You aint seen nothin yet. They can be a lot more brazen when they run the world. nm

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

3. I'm surprised that these executives are able to walk. Given the freakishly enormous size

of their balls.

[BobbyBoring]

8. I'm surprised they are able to walk

Someone should have whacked their legs off with a machete~

[russspeakeasy]

35. I'm surprised the taxpayers are able to walk after the gang bang

that was and is being perpetrated on us. Everyone should read
the "Big Short". On second thought, don't read it;
it's too damn depressing.

[doc03]

4. A few years ago the companies were dumping Defined Benefit

pension plans in favor of Defined Contribution plans claiming DB plans were too costly. So now DC plans are too costly.

[dana_b]

5. evil, rotten, despicable, scum sucking S.O.Bs

strike!!!!

[Lifelong Protester]

6. I recommend and second California Peggy's sentiments

I think it a particularly bad sign that Immelt has ANY position with the Obama Administration

[madrchsod]

7. obama`s new best friend....

[displacedvermoter]

17. He's gonna help everyone find a job, don't ya know!

[drm604]

9. Health saving accounts are worthless by themselves.

They might make some sense combined with a decent employer supplied health insurance plan, but by themselves they're worthless as protection against a major illness.

What do these companies think is going to happen if they all refuse to pay taxes and continue to drive their employees into the ground? Do they think that we'll all meekly crawl away to die in a corner somewhere?

And who the hell do they think is going to buy all of their products and services? The other guy's employees? Well guess what? The other guy is doing the same thing. Nobody is going to be able to buy anybody's products.

They're driving this country towards some sort of socialist revolution. That's something I don't want to see, but they're pushing a lot of people into a corner and leaving them with few options.

[Frustratedlady]

14. I never buy GE products. Thei life is much shorter than others; products.

[Newest Reality]

18. It looks like

GE made about two-thirds of its profit outside the US. That should tell us something about how much they need our production/labor and consumption of goods.

Globalism has changed the rules of the game for multinationals. They have a flexible system for production and exploitation around the world.

Many of us are still thinking ways that lead us to expect some leverage from the "old" consumer cycle, hence, there is shock, disbelief, false hope. The cognitive dissonance is so strong, you can smell it wafting in the breeze.

[drm604]

19. But how much of that "profit" was really made outside of the U.S. selling consumer products?

And how much of it is from accounting tricks used to transfer profits made here into other lower tax jurisdictions.

[Scuba]

10. One of "Bernie's Bad Guys", and well-earned !! n/t

[old mark]

11. K&R.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Frustratedlady]

13. They threatened to leave here until the city and state gave them tax/labor breaks.

I think labor gave up 35%.

[no_hypocrisy]

16. Let their CEOs see how much they like living in the middle of a state without access

their high-class restaurants and bars (and escorts). Call them on their bluff to move.

[TBF]

24. Let them leave - it's not like they create jobs here anyway.

Let the freeloaders live in Nigeria, Malaysia, India or wherever - just get the fuck out.

[no_hypocrisy]

15. It should pay both its employees and its taxes.

[ekelly]

20. GE website that breaks down all of their

products:

http://www.ge.com/products_services/directory/by_product.html

A-Z listing of everything GE. Each category has its own sub-website.

[RussBLib]

21. Oy. It just never stops.

And the left has practically no one pushing against all of this onslaught. One might think that a Democratic President would push back on stuff like this. But I'm afraid that Obama is now part of the problem.

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[dkofos]

23. Sure. Because $14.2 BILLION profit is not enough.

[xchrom]

25. Gotta wonder what immelt is whispering in obama's ear. Nt

[TheKentuckian]

26. The reality is this stuff will continue and expand until extreme corrective measures are effected.

Sappy finger wagging, protests, strongly worded letters, nor voting Democratic is going to have the impact of a drop into an endless sea.

The wealthy and powerful must know immediate and visceral fear or the shenanigans will only pick up steam.

[bertman]

27. It's all about The INVESTOR CLASS. The working class means nothing to them. nt

[Dappleganger]

28. Because they can...

yes, continue to kick a brother while he's down.

Everybody else is doing it, why not?

[stockholmer]

29. you should place Nuclear Hazard stickers on every GE appliance for sale in stores

[tcaudilllg]

32. Let's call for regime change at GE.

[bobthedrummer]

34. ^

[Initech]

38. We need to stop referring to this as a recession and start calling it flat-out thievery.

Really it amazes me that these fucking criminals are just raking it in, yet we're the ones who are told to make sacrifices. Really. When are we finally going to tell these criminal asshole scumfucks "Hey! Fuck you! Enough is enough!" :argh: