Hamilton Sundstrand wants to cut 30 more hourly jobs and farm out work now done at its Windsor Locks headquarters to a subcontractor, according to Mark Hebert, president of Machinists union Local 743.
Company officials notified the union that they plan to outsource to an unnamed third party work on flight safety hardware that goes into the components Hamilton sells to Boeing and other aircraft makers, Hebert said.
Union and company officials today start a 45-day “meet and confer” process to discuss ways to stop the planned cuts or find ways to place the affected workers in other jobs, he said.
Company officials say the work “is not their ‘core’ work at the Windsor locks plant,” Hebert said. “We believe that this work is essentially a part of our core work because it the first step of our assembly and test process for not only the Boeing 787 program but for many other flight safety aerospace assemblies.
The company would lose control of the parts, Hebert said, adding: “Keeping control of critical hardware is a flight safety issue that should be of concern for the flying public.”
If the jobs are eliminated, Hebert said, the union would “make every effort to place those displaced employees in another department.”
Company spokesman Dan Coulom said that the move is necessary, because Hamilton “continues to feel the effects of the economic downturn.” To remain competitive, the company “must continue to reduce cost to position ourselves for future growth when the economy rebounds,” Coulom said.
The job cuts would take place in the second quarter of 2010, he said.
“Outsourcing a portion of our materials logistics function in Windsor Locks allows us to focus on our core work,” he said, which Coulom characterized as “primarily assembling and testing” aerospace parts and equipment.
The work would go to a supplier or suppliers that specialize in these products, likely one in Connecticut or nearby, he said.
Hamilton laid off 19 hourly workers at its Windsor Locks headquarters on Sept. 29. Days later, 10 hourly workers accepted a buyout package.
Those job cuts involved workers in the assembly and test group of the mechanical engines systems and in air management systems, where workers make air conditioning systems for aircraft. Some laid-off employees had worked for the company for as long as 22 years, Hebert said, adding the cuts left the union with 1,015 people in its bargaining unit.
Hamilton on Sept. 2 laid off 45 salaried employees throughout the company’s U.S. operations, 12 of those in Windsor Locks.
At the time of that layoff, Coulom attributed the cuts to “the global economic crisis and poor market conditions.” Affected workers received severance, outplacement services, and continued access to a scholar program that subsidizes employees’ education.
The pending 30 additional hourly layoffs would bring to 553 the total number of jobs lost at Hamilton this year, both salaried and hourly employees combined, through a combination of layoffs and buyouts.
