July 26, 2006 – The Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service (FMCS) has awarded a grant totaling $105,550 to GrowJobsCT, an IAM-initiated coalition that brings together labor, business, community groups and elected officials in Connecticut to keep and grow manufacturing jobs in Connecticut. The grant, which covers the next 18 months, will be used to expand a variety of initiatives being pursued by the organization to sustain Connecticut’s critical manufacturing base.
Since 1990, Connecticut has lost more than 109,000 manufacturing jobs: a loss of 36 percent of the state’s overall manufacturing employment in just 16 years. In just the past four years, Connecticut lost more than 18,000 manufacturing jobs.
In the past 18 months, GrowJobsCT has worked on a variety of issues: promoting a Connecticut-based fuel cell industry; assisting in the effort to find a new buyer for Winchester; working to keep jobs at Hamilton Sundstrand, trying to bring new manufacturers to the state, advocating for the elimination of the property tax on manufacturing machinery and equipment and focusing attention on the need for improved technical training in Connecticut. GrowJobsCT is involved in a major initiative on Universal Health Care, working to bring together business and labor to find common ground on what the coalition sees as a jobs issue.
“We’re honored and excited to receive this grant from FMCS,” said John Harrity, Director of GrowJobsCT. “The fight to keep manufacturing in Connecticut is a crucial concern, both for business owners and workers, as well as the communities they help sustain. This grant will help us keep fighting for jobs, and that’s good for everyone in the state.”