Jan 28, 2011
Local 81301 Members Thrilled by President's Tour of Schenectady Factory
President Obama shook hands and chatted with IUE-CWA Local 81301 members both before and after his speech. (Photos courtesy of GE.)
Below: Local 81301 members were ready with their cameras for Obama's visit.
Not "in a million years," did Marilyn Primett expect to have the kind of day she had last Friday, when she looked up from wiping down a steam turbine and found President Obama extending his hand in greeting.
Primett, a member of IUE-CWA Local 81301 and 34-year employee at GE's Schenectady, N.Y., plant, had been selected to be on the route that Obama was taking as he toured the factory. But to have him stop and talk with her and three colleagues at their workstation was "unbelievable," she said, still excited days later.
When Obama asked about their task, Primett explained that they were making sure the finished product was free of metal chips or burrs. She felt he was genuinely interested and listening. "When he talks to you, he looks right at you," she said. "It was awesome the way he treated everyone with the same respect."
Local member Jeff Van Buren said watching Obama come toward him at the plant, chatting with coworkers and shaking their hands along the way, "was like a TV show or something you see at the movies. The whole atmosphere was something I'll never forget."
One of Obama's tour guides, GE CEO Jeff Immelt, told the president that Van Buren was a graduate of the company's apprentice program at Hudson Valley Community College. In his speech at the plant a few minutes later, Obama mentioned the program and meeting a worker who'd been through it.
"I did a double take when I heard him say that," Van Buren said, recalling his moments talking and joking with the president. "Everything that day went as good as it could possibly have gone. It was something else. I have a story to tell for the rest of my life."
