Machinists Take On Pratt for Jobs

A fight over Pratt & Whitney jobs in Connecticut will be up to a judge to decide and the case heads to court on Monday.

Today, a federal judge will begin hearing arguments from Pratt & Whitney's machinists union, which wants to keep 1,000 jobs in this state despite the company’s plans to move the jobs to Columbus, Georgia, Singapore and Japan.

The jobs losses in question would come from Pratt will shutting its engine overhaul and repair plant in Cheshire by early 2011 and shifting repair operations from its East Hartford facility beginning in April 2010.

The union and state offered concessions to keep jobs in Connecticut, but the company chose to push ahead with plans and the International Association of Machinists filed suit.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is supporting the union.

"I will fight Pratt &Whitney's attempt to outsource 1,000 well-paying state jobs in violation of its union contract," Blumenthal said in a statement. "Loss of these jobs will have a powerful and pernicious impact not only on the workers and their families, but also on the state's economy, tax base and labor relations."

U.S. District Judge Janet Hall is is expected to decide by next month whether the East Hartford-based subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. complied with its union contract that requires "every reasonable effort" to preserve the jobs it wants to move out of state.

The company says it has made those efforts.
 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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