United Technologies Corp., which owns Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky Aircraft, expects to cut 11,600 jobs -- above and beyond cuts already announced. In all, 18,000 jobs will be shed, or slightly more than 8 percent over two years. It is not yet known how many are in Connecticut.
The Hartford-based company also plans to lower its 2009 forecast because of a deteriorating commercial aerospace market.
The moves, part of an expanded $750 million restructuring program, are being driven by a decline in anticipated revenue, which is now expected to total $55 billion this year, down $2.7 billion from a December estimate. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected $55.2 billion.
“The outlook for commercial aerospace and global construction markets has continued to deteriorate since UTC’s December investor meeting and the economic recovery previously anticipated in the second half of 2009 now appears unlikely,” President and Chief Executive Officer Louis R. Chênevert said in a news release.
As of December, United Tech, based in Hartford, Conn., employed about 220,000 people, Reuters reports.
East Hartford-based Pratt & Whitney plans to impose five unpaid furlough days on all employees, company officials said Monday, the Journal Inquirer reports.
Hamilton Sundstrand, a Pratt corporate sibling in Windsor Locks, will do the same on the same days, according to Hamilton spokesman Dan Coulom told the Journal Inquirer. Both are subsidiaries of Hartford-based United Technologies Corp.
Local
Under the furlough plan, Pratt plants will be closed on Monday, April 13, Friday, May 22, Friday, Sept. 4, Monday, Oct. 12, and Wednesday, Nov. 25, Pratt spokesman Matthew Perra told the Journal Inquirer.
The program affects all Pratt employees worldwide, hourly and salaried, he said.
“For union represented employees, we do not have contract limitations but we will be working with the union to discuss implementation of the furlough program,” Perra said.
In addition, Pratt has limited hiring and has used “managed attrition,” to control costs, and has deferred merit salary increases for 2009, Perra told the Journal Inquirer.
In December, Pratt laid off 350 salaried workers, around 280 of those at Connecticut plants in East Hartford, Middletown and Cheshire, with the remainder out of state, according to the Journal Inquirer.
In January, Pratt cut 150 hourly workers from its payrolls through buyouts and layoffs, 87 at its East Hartford plant according to the Journal Inquirer.
Roughly 30 hourly workers at the East Hartford plant signed up for a voluntary separation package, while 57 of the cuts came through outright layoffs according to the Journal Inquirer.
There are 12,000 workers, salaried and hourly together, at Pratt’s Connecticut operations. In addition to its flagship East Hartford plant, Pratt operates an assembly plant in Middletown and a parts, overhaul, and repair plant in Cheshire, the Journal Inquirer reports.
Job Losses Around Connecticut
