August 18, 2009 - A statewide effort to keep Pratt & Whitney from closing facilities in Cheshire and East Hartford, CT remained high gear this week when more than 40 representatives from the IAM, area unions and officials from government, including the Governor’s office, the state legislature and the U.S. Congress met to formulate plans to keep Pratt jobs in Connecticut.
The IAM has been leading a statewide effort to protect Pratt jobs that included an appearance last week before the state Commerce Committee, chaired by State Senator Gary LeBeau. The Committee held a special hearing on Pratt’s shocking proposal to close their Cheshire engine overhaul and repair facility, as well as their Connecticut Airfoil Repair Operation (CARO) in East Hartford, putting more than 1,000 jobs at risk, and an estimated 3,000 other jobs that could be lost in the ripple effect of the plant closures. Under Pratt & Whitney’s plan, most of this work would go to Singapore, Japan and a non-union plant in Columbus, Georgia.
IAM members crammed the hearing room and heard District 26 Assistant Directing Business Representative Jim Parent testify before the Committee. Pratt officials declined to attend the hearing, calling it “premature.”
“As far as I am concerned,” Parent told Committee members regarding Pratt & Whitney’s proposed plant closings, “this has been a terrible betrayal of workers who made this company the success it is today, and the communities that have nurtured and sustained this corporation for decades.”
Click here to read Parent’s full testimony.
