Yesterday's New Haven Register reported that Pratt & Whitney will not be allowed to close its Cheshire plant and an East Hartford division, which would result in Connecticut losing 1,000 jobs. A federal appeals court decided that the company could not close the plants because it had not made every reasonable effort to keep the jobs here.
According to the article:
"The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld a previous decision by a federal judge that said the company violated its contract with the union by not making all reasonable attempts to spare the proposed job cuts.
"However, Parent said the injunction on the cuts lasts only through the duration of the current contract between Pratt and the union, which expires Dec. 5.
"Union leaders will fight to keep "job security language" that is included in their current three-year pact in the next one when they begin contract negotiations with Pratt in October, he said."
This is an example of a union preventing a company from doing what is necessary for the survival of the company. If I were Pratt & Whitney, I would keep the plant open until December 5 if possible (I suspect the unions will strike if the 'job security language' is not included in their next contract), and then move as far away from Connecticut as possible. Unions have a place in American business, but the people who run them have become worse than corporate fat cats. Look at the salaries of union leaders, look at how the union spends its dues politically with no input from its members, and look at the underfunding of union pension funds. If the unions would work with corporations instead of against them, we would all be better off.
Leave a comment