ATW Daily News

Pratt plans closure of two Connecticut MRO facilities

Wednesday September 23, 2009

Pratt & Whitney has decided to close its Cheshire, Conn., MRO center and its Connecticut Airfoil Repair Operation facility in East Hartford, resulting in the loss of some 1,000 jobs and prompting a lawsuit from the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

Pratt overhauls the PW2000, PW4000 and F117 at Cheshire and conducts component repair at CARO. It said it would save $53.8 million per year by closing the two facilities. CARO is scheduled to close in the 2010 second quarter, with Cheshire set to be shuttered in early 2011, a Pratt spokesperson confirmed to ATWOnline. Although the closures were not part of the major restructuring announced in March by Pratt parent United Technologies (ATWOnline, March 30), "now that the decision is made, this will fall under UTC's restructuring," the spokesperson said. "From the financial side, it falls under that."

The CARO work will move to Asia and the Cheshire work will transfer to Pratt's Columbus, Ga., facility and its Singapore-based joint venture with SIA Engineering. The engine-maker said current costs at Cheshire, which employs 800, are some 40% higher than in Georgia, while CARO costs are 40% more than at P&W's Japan center and 170% higher than in Singapore.

Pratt said it anticipated that Cheshire would suffer a 40% reduction in volume next year, including a 68% drop in work from US customers. Work at CARO is expected to fall at a similar rate.

"It is important to understand that this evaluation followed the company's ongoing efforts to make these businesses successful. . .and to preserve the work here in Connecticut," Pratt said. "In the years leading up to this evaluation, the company invested in these businesses to improve capability and capacity, implemented transformational continuous improvement initiatives, reduced overhead and explored numerous alternatives before turning to the meet and confer process" with IAM.

That process began July 24. Pratt said the union's final proposal would have resulted in $25.8 million in savings next year, along with further savings related to overtime and process improvement that were "not quantifiable." The state of Connecticut also offered incentives worth an additional $5 million over five years.

Yesterday afternoon, IAM filed suit in US District Court seeking an order blocking the closures and accusing Pratt of failing to make "every reasonable effort" to find a solution, the Associated Press reported. State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal called the company's negotiation a "charade."

In a statement provided to this website, Pratt said it had not yet been served with the complaint and insisted that it "followed the process outlined in the collective bargaining agreement, acted in good faith at all times and are confident that we will prevail in this matter."

by Brian Straus

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