Top executive at Pratt & Whitney testifies company had no alternative to Conn. job cuts

Top Pratt executive testifies about Conn. cuts

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Pratt & Whitney had no alternative but to shut down two Connecticut engine repair plants and move about 1,000 jobs out of the state, the president of the jet engine maker testified Wednesday.

David Hess said the plants were “marginally profitable,” and that financial offers by the state and the Machinists union fell short of what the company needed to keep the operations going.

Hess was among the last witnesses in the U.S. District Court trial that began in December after the union sued to block the job cuts, claiming Pratt & Whitney failed to make contractually required efforts to preserve jobs. Company officials deny the claims.

Hess testified that when he took the helm of the East Hartford, Conn.-based subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. last January, the company was facing its “biggest financial challenge since World War II.”

Pratt & Whitney announced in September it will shut its engine overhaul and repair plant in Cheshire by early 2011 and shift repair operations from its East Hartford facility beginning in the second quarter of this year. The company wants to shift jobs to Columbus, Ga., Japan and Singapore.

Underlying the union’s lawsuit are workers’ fears about growing Asian markets, lower labor and other production costs in the South and overseas and the decline in Connecticut’s manufacturing industries.

Pratt & Whitney has scaled back operations in Connecticut since the 1960s when more than 20,000 workers were employed. The company now employs 11,000 in Connecticut, a little less than one-third of its global work force.

Hess said Wednesday that there was some reluctance among company executives to shut the two plants because of negative reaction from the state’s elected officials. Pratt & Whitney relies on Connecticut’s congressional delegation to lobby for military contracts that account for much of the company’s jet engine business.

“It’s important that we have the full support of the Connecticut delegation in the debate in Washington,” he testified.

But Hess said he ultimately decided to shut the operations because the amount of work they were handling was declining and would not return to prior levels even after the recession ended.

Hess and other executives have testified that Pratt & Whitney needed $58 million in annual savings. A union offer of $25 million in concessions for one year “wasn’t even close,” Hess said.

U.S. District Judge Janet Hall was expected to decide later this month whether the company complied with its union contract and made every effort to preserve the jobs. The Machinists union, which represents about 3,700 workers, is trying to keep the jobs until December when the contract expires. It will be then able to negotiate the issue when talks begin for a new contract or call a strike when the agreement expires.