Members of several unions showed up in force at Whirlpool Corp.’s annual shareholder meeting in Chicago Tuesday. David Jones, a retired member of IUE-CWA, and a former Whirlpool employee of the shuttered refrigerator facility in Evansville, Ind., presented the AFL-CIO’s shareholder proposal asking the company to obtain shareholder approval for any future “golden coffin” payments to senior executives.

IUE-CWA President James D. Clark has been honored as a “Champion of Change for Corporate Environmental Responsibility” by the Obama administration. Clark is cited for his union’s work in helping to train union members to identify energy efficiency opportunities that improve environmental performance and the competitiveness of manufacturing.

After four weeks of tough bargaining, IUE-CWA and the United Electrical Workers Union (UE) late last evening reached tentative national agreements with General Electric (GE).

Workers at a General Electric’s (GE’s) refrigerator plant in Bloomington, Ind., have been fighting to keep the facility viable in the cutthroat global economy. Now, two years after the company said it was going to shutter the plant, workers are celebrating a new day. Instead of closing the plant, GE has announced it will invest $93 million in upgrades and begin to produce energy-efficient refrigerators at the plant.