GE 2005 Annual Report Download - page 21

(21)
Environmental Matters
Our operations, like operations of other companies engaged in similar businesses, involve the use, disposal and
cleanup of substances regulated under environmental protection laws.
We are involved in a sizable number of remediation actions to clean up hazardous wastes as required by
federal and state laws. Such statutes require that responsible parties fund remediation actions regardless of fault,
legality of original disposal or ownership of a disposal site. Expenditures for site remediation actions amounted to
$0.1 billion in each of the last two years. We presently expect that such remediation actions will require average
annual expenditures in the range of $0.2 billion to $0.3 billion over the next two years.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruled in February 2002 that approximately 150,000
pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) must be dredged from a 40-mile stretch of the upper Hudson River in
New York State. On October 6, 2005, GE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) entered into and
filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York a consent decree that, subject to approval of
that court, represents a comprehensive framework for implementation of the EPA’ s 2002 decision to dredge PCB-
containing sediments in the upper Hudson River. The dredging will be performed in two phases with an intervening
peer review of performance after phase 1. Under this consent decree, we have committed up to $0.1 billion to
reimburse the EPA for its past and future project oversight costs and agreed to perform the first phase of dredging.
We further committed that, subject to future agreement with the EPA about completion of dredging after completion
of phase 1 and the peer review, we will be responsible for further costs, including costs of phase 2 dredging. Our
Statement of Financial Position as of December 31, 2005 and 2004, included liabilities for the estimated costs of this
remediation.
See page 119 for additional discussion of environmental matters.
Employee Relations
At year-end 2005, General Electric Company and consolidated affiliates employed approximately 316,000 persons,
of whom approximately 161,000 were employed in the United States. For further information about employees, see
page 26.
Approximately 22,650 GE manufacturing and service employees in the United States are represented for
collective bargaining purposes by a total of approximately 150 different local collective bargaining groups. A
majority of such employees are represented by union locals that are affiliated with, and bargain in conjunction with,
the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers (IUE/CWA-AFL-CIO).
During 2003, General Electric Company negotiated four-year contracts with unions representing a substantial
majority of those United States employees who are represented by unions. Most of these contracts will terminate in
June 2007. NBC Universal is party to approximately 160 labor agreements covering about 3,500 staff employees
(and a large number of freelance employees) in the United States. These agreements are with various labor unions,
expire at various dates and are generally for a term ranging from three to five years.
Executive Officers
See Part III, Item 10 of this Form 10-K/A Report for information about Executive Officers of the Registrant.