GE Fort Worth locomotive plant accused of breaking union agreement
FORT WORTH -- General Electric’s locomotive plant in far north Fort Worth is putting a strain on the company’s relationship with one of its Pennsylvania-based unions.
The plant, which opened in 2012 near Texas Motor Speedway, employs more than 500 people and builds railroad locomotives and mining equipment. The facility, near Texas 114 and Farm Road 156, cranks out an average of 1.2 locomotives per day, a plant manager has said, and those vehicles are bought by customers such as Fort Worth-based BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad, based in Omaha, Neb.
But workers at the Fort Worth plant aren’t union members, and that has caused some heartburn among union representatives in GE’s much older locomotive plant in Erie, Pa.
One example of the tension is a complaint filed by Local 618 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America alleging that GE broke its contract with the union by employing a nonunion member to test wheels at the Fort Worth plant. That union has represented GE workers in Erie since the 1940s.
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