Pratt & Whitney’s Machinists Ratify Contract, End Strike

Union machinists voted Sunday to accept a three-year contract and end a 13-day walkout by about 5,000 workers at three Pratt & Whitney Aircraft jet engine plants in Connecticut.

The workers voted 4,785 to 604 for the contract that union and company negotiators had agreed to Friday, and began returning to work at midnight, said George Almeida, a union representative.

Almeida said the contract improves job security, an issue the union had cited as the main reason behind the walkout, which began Dec. 2 at plants in Southington, North Haven and Middletown. It includes limits on subcontracting, protection against job loss due to technology and retraining of workers displaced by automation, Almeida said.

Machinists’ local President Dean White said the economic provisions of the pact were the same as those the company offered before the strike. Those provisions included a $300 bonus; a general hourly increase of between 17 cents and 62 cents an hour; cost-of-living raises, and improvements in the savings, insurance and pension plans.