The aerospace giant will eliminate 300 union machinist jobs at its Windsor Locks plant.
Astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt collects samples during Apollo 17 mission in 1972 wearing a suit designed by Hamilton-Standard, now Hamilton-Sundstrand, of Windosr Locks, Conn. (Photo coutesy of NASA)WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. – Aerospace giant Hamilton Sundstrand will eliminate 300 union machinist jobs at its Windsor Locks plant.
The work will shift to lower-cost production plants in Poland, Singapore and Arizona, said Daniel P. Coulom, a spokesman for Hamilton Sundstrand. The job losses will take place over the next few months and any forced layoffs won’t happen until late this year, Coulom said.
Everett C. Corey, directing business representative for the International Association of Machinists, said the initial cuts will total 214. A second wave should bring the total cuts up to 300.
Neither the company nor the union knows how many of the workers live in Massachusetts. But Corey said he would assume it is a significant number.
“The net effect of losing 300 highly paid machinist jobs in the region will be significant,” said Allan W. Blair, president and CEO of the Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts. “These are jobs that allow people to raise a family.”
Blair said a significant number of Western Massachusetts companies do work for Hamilton Sundstrand as subcontractors. He fears the ripple effect of this week’s announcement on those companies.
But they might benefit, he said, by hiring a highly skilled former Hamilton Sundstrand employee. There is a shortage of trained workers for precision manufacturers. Hamilton Sundstrand is a unit of Hartford-based United Technologies, best known for making spacesuits and other gear for NASA. It also makes aircraft parts.
A test version of a Mars spacesuit, designed by Hamilton Sundstrand of Windsor Locks, Conn., undergoes testing in the rocky frigid landscape of Devon Island in the Canadian arctic.In news announced Wednesday, United Technologies said its net income rose to $1.01 billion, or $1.11 per share, for the three months that ended March 31. That’s up from $866 million, or 93 cents per share, a year earlier. Hamilton Sundstrand’s operating profit rose from $221 million in the first quarter of 2010 to $244 million in the first quarter of this year.
Corey said his task now is minimizing the number of union members who are involuntarily laid off. The company is offering severance payments based on years of experience, a one-time payment of $7,000 and a year of medical insurance.
“If our members are close to 65, we hope the incentives make it an easier decision for them,” Corey said. “Other than that, we will depend on normal attrition to open up other positions within the company.”
The average wage of a union machinist at Hamilton Sundstrand is about $30 an hour, he said. Many of the workers have been with the company for decades
Before these cuts, the machinists union represented about 1,100 workers at Hamilton Sundstrand in Windsor Locks and about 4,000 workers total at United Technologies plants around the state.
“The goal is, slide as many workers as we can into positions elsewhere in the company, or in union machinist jobs at other companies,” Corey said. “But these jobs are gone.”
Last year, United Technologies announced the closure of two Connecticut factories run by its Pratt & Whitney aerospace division, the Cheshire engine repair plant and the airfoil design plant in East Hartford, costing 500 jobs.
Hamilton Sundstrand itself cut about 140 jobs in 2010.
In January, David P Hess, president of Pratt & Whitney, said UTC is moving as much work as it can to low-cost areas. It’s also looking to move work to Asia because that’s where the market for aircraft is growing.
Coulom said Hamilton Sundstrand is investing money in the Windsor Locks plant, but he was unable to give a dollar amount. Additions include a laboratories and a customer call center providing technical assistance. New jobs at the plant, which has a total of 4,000 workers, are in engineering and technical fields.
“We are committed to Windsor Locks,” Coulom said. “It’s just a matter of finding a balance of what work it makes sense to do here.”