In a bit of welcome news for the local economy, GE Transportation Systems Inc. is calling laid-off employees back to work.
Not so long ago, 124 members of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers Local 506 were collecting unemployment or looking for work.
"At this point we have some number less than 50, and that is shrinking every day," union President Frank Fusco said.
Fusco said locomotive orders are on the rise but had no details about the specific number the company expects to build.
Abby Cohn, an employee in the company's communications and public affairs department, confirmed Friday that sales are improving.
"We are seeing some increased volume for 2004, and we are expecting to recall some workers at this point," she said.
However, Cohn said she couldn't say exactly how many locomotives were on order and how that compared with production numbers for this year.
Some of the recalls can be attributed to scheduled retirements that will make room for furloughed workers, Fusco said.
At the same time, the return of workers to the Lawrence Park plant seems to close the door on plans for a massive layoff that never fully materialized.
Originally, 225 jobs were to have been moved to overseas plants. That number was pared to just 47 after negotiations between the union and company officials.
Plans to cut the company's payroll by 900 jobs, announced in January 2002, ultimately resulted in the loss of about 130 positions.
Now many of those workers are returning to what are widely considered some of the best industrial jobs Erie has to offer.
"I am still marking names off the list," Fusco said. "People are calling and saying, 'Hey, I just got called back."
It's a happy occasion for Fusco, who was laid off for 22 months in the early 1980s.
"I know what these guys are going through," he said. "I know it's not a lot of fun out there, and it's much worse now. The other jobs that were available in 1982 aren't there now."
Erie County Executive Rick Schenker said he's been aware for a while that things have been looking up at the local GE plant.
"I want you to know I daily pray for locomotive orders," he said. "Things are looking great for 2004. They are going to exhaust their callback list, and they are going to probably go beyond that."
Like Schenker, Fusco said he's short on specifics.
"There are going to be some orders," he said. "We are going to start ramping up this year, and next year is going to be pretty good."
Coming on the heels of a recent decline in the county's unemployment rate — from 7.3 percent in June to 6.9 percent in July — Schenker said he's convinced the good news at GE Transportation Systems is a sign of things to come.
"We need this good news and have a lot more of it coming," he said. "I think the hiring back of people is going to start hitting us a lot starting in September and October."
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