Machinists union members at UTC Power in South Windsor ratified a new three-year that gives the 155 hourly workers a 2.5 percent wage hike in each year of the agreement, plus a $1,000 signing bonus, The Journal Register reports.
Workers will pay slightly higher costs for health insurance, but even that was “more than offset by other financial gains,” according to James Parent, assistant directing business representative for the union’s District 26, the newspaper said today on its Web site.
UTC Power, a division of United Technologies Corp. in Hartford, makes fuel cells for on-site power, transportation, space, and defense uses.
In addition to the wage increases and signing bonus, the new labor pact includes continued cost-of-living adjustments and increased pension and savings plan benefits, Parent said.
The company also will increase its contributions to employees’ individual medical accounts, which may be used to pay for health care costs, he said.
With about 89 percent of the bargaining unit’s membership present at Sunday’s contract vote at the union Local 1746 headquarters in East Hartford, workers approved the contract by a vote of 125-13, Parent said.
In one other addition to the new contract, workers agreed to a new “alternative work week schedule” that will include some employees’ working three 12-hour shifts each week, and others working a four-day, 10-hour-a-day schedule, Parent said. But most workers will remain on the traditional eight-hour, five-days-a-week schedule, he said.
The alternative work hours will involve only eight employees and will help the company to operate its pilot program for products under development on a seven-day-week basis, Parent said.
The union negotiating committee unanimously recommended acceptance of the company’s contract offer, according to Parent, who was the union’s chief negotiator in the contract talks.
“This agreement was reached through hard bargaining and membership unity in the shop,” he said. “Especially in these tough economic times, the financial gains are very positive.
“We’re hopeful that now that negotiations are over, we can work with the company to bring fuel cells to full commercialization,” he said. “This technology has the potential to produce thousands of new jobs over the next decade.”
In a company statement, UTC Power spokeswoman Peg Hashem said that the company is “pleased to have reached the agreement,” adding only that the company intends to work with the union “to make UTC Power the world leader in delivering green fuel cell solutions for business.”
Fuel cells use hydrogen and oxygen in an electrochemical process to produce electricity, heat, and water without combustion, and with near zero air pollution.
