The Perfect Enemy | Pratt & Whitney workers ratify 3-year contract, establishing labor peace, job security as post-COVID-19 air travel picks up

WALLINGFORD — Unionized workers at Pratt & Whitney on Sunday ratified a three-year contract, ensuring labor peace as the jet engine manufacturer looks forward to a return to pre-pandemic air travel and steady increases in military spending.

For the International Association of Machinists, job security is assured following COVID-19 job cuts and a Pratt & Whitney manufacturing center set to open in North Carolina, a lower-cost right-to-work state less friendly to unions than Northeast states.

[ David Powilatis, vice president of employee and labor relations at Pratt & Whitney, said the agreement is fair to employees, while also “positioning the company for long-term success.”

IAM International President Robert Martinez Jr. said workers during the pandemic were considered essential and “took their roles to maintain production and helped the company remain profitable seriously.”

The Machinists union, which represents about 3,000 employees at Pratt & Whitney’s East Hartford and Middletown plants, said approximately that number voted. The union did not provide details on the tally.

The collective bargaining agreement, which takes effect Monday, improves job security language, including guaranteed new work, annual wage increases, improved pension accrual rates and more personal time off and vacations, the union said. It did not provide specific information about the contract.

The union said the pact improves on health care costs, with a minimum average savings per employee of $2,400, including premiums and out-of-pocket expenses.

Pratt & Whitney said the agreement calls for competitive wage increases in each of the three years, improves medical and dental health care plans, enhanced vacation policies for newer employees and continued apprentice programs.

Gerald Martin, an electrician who’s worked at Pratt & Whitney 24 years, said it was a fair contract. Following the vote at the Toyota Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford, he said pensions were increased after the company and union in 2016 negotiated an end to pensions for new hires in the 5.5-year contract now expiring.

Martin, 62, said Pratt & Whitney should benefit from improving business. He recently returned from Germany where he visited family and said he’s “never seen so many jets and planes overhead.” The plane on which he traveled “was packed,” he said.

Eileen Post, a general lead inspector for Pratt & Whitney’s military business, said “plenty of overtime” is available.

One improvement, she said, is that three weeks vacation available after eight years on the job may now be used after five years.

Post, a 38-year veteran of Pratt & Whitney, recalled strikes in 1985 and 2001 that she said gained little for workers. “You go back for the exact same pay you went on strike for,” she said.

Job security was a top concern for workers. During the pandemic, Pratt and Whitney’s workforce was reduced by 13%, Martinez said.

Pratt & Whitney workers ratify 3-year contract, establishing labor peace, job security as post-COVID-19 air travel picks up – Hartford Courant

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Raytheon is opening a $650 million advanced casting foundry and airfoil production facility in Asheville, N.C. It cited energy costs that are lower than in Connecticut. The workforce is nonunion, which may cut labor costs and, without work rules negotiated in collective bargaining agreements, management will have more flexibility.

“Our team has prepared for months for these negotiations, and the continual focus on protecting and growing the workforce in Connecticut is paramount,” Martinez said at the start of contract talks.

The Machinists union cited the North Carolina plant it said “completes some of the work in Connecticut.”

Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies Corp., based in Waltham, Mass., posted revenue of $4.5 billion for the first three months of the year, up 12% from the first quarter of 2021. Raytheon Technologies says it expects airline travel to return to 2019 levels next year.

The East Hartford-based engine maker has been climbing back from a steep fall in revenue and profit brought on by COVID-19 that forced travel restrictions, prompting airlines to ground their fleets.

The Machinists union said this year it’s negotiating contracts that cover more than 55,000 workers.

Stephen Singer can be reached at ssinger@courant.com.