**For Planning Purposes Only**

Contact: Emilia.Rowland@mail.house.gov 330.212.2065

Advisory for Thursday, July 6 at 4pm ET

Summer Lee to Rally in Solidarity with UE Locals 506 & 618 on Strike

(Braddock, PA) On Thursday, July 6, Congresswoman Summer Lee, an organizer who has been a leading voice in the fight for worker’s rights, will join United Electrical Workers Locals 506 and 618 who are currently on strike for the green jobs of the future at Wabtec in Erie, PA. 

• WHAT: Solidarity Rally for UE Locals 506 and 618 

• WHEN: July 6, 2023 from 4-5 pm

• WHO: UE Locals 506 and 618 alongside other local, state and federal leaders

• WHERE: Wabtec HQ | 30 Isabella Street

About/Background:

• The 1400 members of UE Locals 506 and 618 are on strike for the green jobs of the future. They are the most skilled locomotive builders in the world, and want to make the green locomotives that are essential to our country’s climate future.
• Instead of working with the union to build those green locomotives, Wabtec is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on stock buybacks and mergers and acquisitions.
• Wabtec is trying to squeeze as much profit out of its Erie workforce as possible.
• They are demanding that workers pay more for health insurance while accepting a wage increase that doesn’t keep pace with inflation.
• They want to replace senior employees with new hires, and continue to pay those new hires near-poverty wages.
• They refuse to heat the plant or invest in basic safety measures — workers are working in unheated buildings in the Erie winter and losing fingers to machinery.
• They refuse to settle issues in the plant, pushing grievances to arbitration — and then suing the union when they lose. This is why the workers want the right to strike over grievances.
• The company is trying to negotiate through threats, intimidation and union-busting tactics:
  • They threatened to permanently subcontract hundreds of jobs in its Erie plant if workers did not accept their last, best & final offer.
  • They sent a letter to all their workers encouraging them to resign from the union and cross the picket line.
  • They have filed a board charge trying to take away UE members’ constitutional right to peaceful protest.