The IAM announced it would file a lawsuit in federal court following news this week that Pratt & Whitney (P&W) would close its Cheshire Overhaul & Repair facility and the Center for Airfoil Repair (CARO) in East Hartford, CT.
The lawsuit is the next step in a battle to save more than 1,000 IAM jobs at Pratt, and follows two months of often frustrating meetings with management representatives at Pratt.
“It was a sham,” said District 26 Assistant DBR Jim Parent in the New Haven Register of claims by the company that it gave serious consideration to more than $60 million in cost savings proposed by the union and $100 million in tax credits and other incentives offered by the state of Connecticut. “We believe the company had made up its mind (about moving) before it went to the table.”
The ripple effect of the 1,000 layoffs is expected to cause an additional 3,000 to 6,000 layoffs in surrounding communities.
“In pursuing its relentless goal of ever-more profits, Pratt is shutting down two money-making operations with highly-skilled, long-service workforces in communities that have been unswervingly supportive of the business,” said Parent. “This grab to save some money in supposedly lower cost locations could blow up in their face – but company executives chose that route over reasonable alternatives that could preserve the work here.”
