Union, Pratt Agree To Ratified Deal

Pratt & Whitney will close its plant in Cheshire and a small facility in East Hartford, under a new union agreement. But as WNPR’s Harriet Jones reports, the three-year deal ratified Sunday by machinists at the jet engine maker preserves job security language.

This new contract comes after months of contentious talks between management at Pratt & Whitney and representatives of the International Association of Machinists. Pratt has tried throughout this year to close engine repair plants in Cheshire and East Hartford, known as CARO, intending to move the work to Georgia and Singapore. But the union won a court battle to keep the facilities open, at least until its contract expired. Chief union negotiator Jim Parent says the plants were front and center during the talks but the union had to concede.

“It didn’t really matter how much money we came up with, the company was going to close Cheshire and CARO. We said ok, if we can’t save the plants, let’s negotiate a way to save the workers, and so we have a with a buyout package that we believe will be able to save all of the Cheshire and CARO workers.”

That package means that there should be no layoffs involved in the closures. About 500 positions will be eliminated, but 75 will be added in Middletown, and the reductions will be achieved by early retirement. Also in dispute during these talks was the job security language that’s kept the company from moving work out of Connecticut. That will stay, with the modification that it won’t apply to work picked up by the company since 2007. The union says that still means more than 90% of work is covered.  Pratt & Whitney’s Woody Woodyard says the company is happy both with the new buyout clause and the modified job security language.

“We believe this is done in a very respectful and responsible way which allows us to ease any disruption on employees, but also this agreement, this ratified contract gives us the flexibility we need to remain competitive and put the right work in the right place, and ultimately the best path to job security is for us to remain competitive in the marketplace.”

For WNPR, I'm Harriet Jones.