General Electric union workers – including those at plants in Cowley County – voted this week to approve a four-year labor agreement with the company.
Roughly 70 percent of the members of the International Union of Electronic Workers/Communications Workers of America and the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America voted in favor of ratifying the contract. The agreement will run through 2015.
Union officials had warned of a strike had a deadline passed without a new agreement.
The agreement calls for workers to receive some bonus money and a cost-of-living increase. However, workers will pay more for health care and a pension plan for new hires is to be replaced by a 401(k) plan, according to national media reports.
GE Engine Services operates plants at Strother Field and in Winfield.