October 3, 2003 Kensington, CT – Pratt & Whitney materials workers voted 219 to 203 –with 1 void -- today to reject management’s proposal to swap pay cuts for stronger Job Security. 423 workers from the Cheshire, East Hartford and Middletown plants cast ballots today in a vote which affects 468 materials workers.
    From the start, IAM leaders have said that this tough decision needed to be made by the workers themselves, and today’s vote shows that the majority of workers reject management’s insistence on wage cuts as the price for strengthened Job Security.
    Pratt management made this situation a "lose/lose" one for workers, who are Pratt’s lowest paid employees without a further reduction. Pratt insisted on a steep pay cut, included workers in Cheshire who already have contract protection against layoff, and were even unwilling to say that managers in the materials organization were also taking reductions.
    All that plus the fact that the company remains highly profitable, and UTC executives routinely get exorbitant bonuses, caused many workers to object on principle to making drastic financial sacrifices, even at the cost of layoff.
    The IAM will request a meeting as soon as possible with Pratt management to discuss how to preserve materials jobs without reducing workers’ pay. The Machinists Union continues to believe that retaining these workers in the critical parts shipping operation is in the company’s interest as well as the workers’.
    Pratt’s continual stretching of their enterprise to locations thousands of miles apart, and increasingly out of their direct control, is a risky business model. The spare parts shipping operation is the final place where Pratt handles the parts before they go to the customer. Given that spare parts is the most lucrative segment of Pratt’s business, it would make sense to maintain that operation inhouse, and reward the workers involved instead of demoralizing them.
    Assistant Directing Business Representative Jim Parent said: "We had to bring this proposal back to the members, because management said it was their final offer. But we knew it was an ugly proposition, and this vote proves that. Now management has a chance to work with us instead of working against their own employees. Hopefully, they will take up that challenge."