http://articles.courant.com/2011-12-12/b...w-hulking-plant
December has brought an explosive mix of news for workers at the Colt firearms plant in West Hartford, who had a good year but are suddenly feeling less secure with contract talks coming up.
The company — actually two sister companies, Colt's Manufacturing Co. and Colt Defense — announced that Colt's Manufacturing, the commercial side that makes sporting handguns and some rifles, will open a plant in Kissimmee, Fla. Colt's will hire 63 employees at a renovated former Osceola County Council on Aging building.
The plant will be Colt's only U.S. factory outside of Hartford, where the company was famously founded 175 years ago, or West Hartford, where it sits now in a hulking plant on New Park Avenue. That was alarming enough, especially since the United Auto Workers shop chairman said he heard a news report that Colt's would eventually have hundreds of jobs in the Sunshine State, where wages are low and unions are scarce.
But then last week, the companies — which operate jointly — told UAW reps that they would freeze unfilled jobs in West Hartford, and begin cutting at the start of the new year. UAW has about 350 jobs at the plant.
"They told us to expect more layoffs after the holidays," said Mike Holmes, the shop chairman at Colt's for UAW Local 376, who had no more specifics.
Put the two together, and Pow! A new plant announced in a non-union, right-to-work state, where the company won't say exactly what it will make. And layoffs at the hometown plant. It's all unfolding three months before the current contract expires — a contract that includes a measure preventing the company from moving work out of state, Holmes said.
"The members are strongly opposed to this and we consider it a direct threat to jobs in Hartford, especially at a time when we're losing jobs," Holmes said Monday.
The union workers, about two-thirds of them, gathered for a grim meeting Sunday morning in Newington. For now, there's nothing they can do but wait, and worry. It's especially baffling, Holmes said, because the companies have gradually brought back all but 26 of the 128 union members who were laid off in June 2010 from the West Hartford plant.
"We have had a strong contract and we've had a good working relationship here," Holmes said. "And that's why … we find it disturbing that jobs are being created elsewhere."
The company posted a brief announcement of the new plant on its website Dec. 1, and has plastered signs at the plant saying West Hartford operations won't be affected by the expansion.
"The new 16,000-square-foot facility will allow Colt's Manufacturing Co. to expand into new markets and business lines in parallel with the company's existing 100,000-square-foot facility in Connecticut. Specific information on facility renovations and employee requirements will be determined over the course of the next several months," the website said.
A company official did not return a call seeking further comment Monday. If the company said the expansion won't mean jobs moving from here to there, everyone has to take it at its word. Still, the signs are there — especially since most world-famous brands in high-end manufacturing have long since expanded beyond their home states
The pattern here is somewhat similar to what we saw at Pratt & Whitney in 2009 and 2010, when the company tried to eliminate 500 overhaul and repair jobs in Cheshire, moving them to lower-cost locations, but was thwarted by a jobs-can't-move contract provision that the Machinists union fought to save. In the long run, the union — whether it's the Machinists at Pratt or the UAW at Colt's — can only win that battle by offering concessions and proving to the company that its workers' skills are worth the extra cost.
How much extra? Holmes wouldn't detail the pay scales for UAW workers at Colt's, but news reports in Florida by The Associated Press and others pegged the average salary down there at $45,000 — most likely less than a worker makes in West Hartford.
The jobs didn't come cheap for the state of Florida, either — the AP report said the state agreed to kick in $1.6 million, compared with a $2.5 million investment by Colt's. Florida Gov. Rick Scott had to defend the move, but heck, Connecticut's guv, Dannel P. Malloy, has paid far more per job and no doubt would have jumped at a chance to do so for Colt's in West Hartford.
Colt's history was not lost in Florida, where TV stations played up the idea of having a 175-year-old company, and a gunmaker at that, in their midst. Back home, aside from being the company that gave birth to mass production, the privately owned Colt's had a nasty, four-year strike in the '80s that led to partial ownership by the union, and a seat on the board by the UAW, occupied by the venerable, retired Phil Wheeler.
So the pieces are in place for another colorful chapter as the UAW and Colt's negotiate a new contract by March. They'll do it against a painful economic backdrop. "Everyone that we've called back has been unable to find work elsewhere, or they have only had temporary work," Holmes said. "They've been overjoyed to come back."
And they'll do it amid the big question of whether Colt's is building strength in Florida so it can boost sales and keep its work in Connecticut, or hollowing out its home base.
"We were really caught off guard by this big unveiling of Colt down in Forida," Holmes said. "We would like the opportunity to create the jobs here. … We believe in our workforce and the skills of our workforce and we pride ourselves that we make the best firearms in the world."
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December has brought an explosive mix of news for workers at the Colt firearms plant in West Hartford, who had a good year but are suddenly feeling less secure with contract talks coming up.
The company — actually two sister companies, Colt's Manufacturing Co. and Colt Defense — announced that Colt's Manufacturing, the commercial side that makes sporting handguns and some rifles, will open a plant in Kissimmee, Fla. Colt's will hire 63 employees at a renovated former Osceola County Council on Aging building.
The plant will be Colt's only U.S. factory outside of Hartford, where the company was famously founded 175 years ago, or West Hartford, where it sits now in a hulking plant on New Park Avenue. That was alarming enough, especially since the United Auto Workers shop chairman said he heard a news report that Colt's would eventually have hundreds of jobs in the Sunshine State, where wages are low and unions are scarce.
But then last week, the companies — which operate jointly — told UAW reps that they would freeze unfilled jobs in West Hartford, and begin cutting at the start of the new year. UAW has about 350 jobs at the plant.
"They told us to expect more layoffs after the holidays," said Mike Holmes, the shop chairman at Colt's for UAW Local 376, who had no more specifics.
Put the two together, and Pow! A new plant announced in a non-union, right-to-work state, where the company won't say exactly what it will make. And layoffs at the hometown plant. It's all unfolding three months before the current contract expires — a contract that includes a measure preventing the company from moving work out of state, Holmes said.
"The members are strongly opposed to this and we consider it a direct threat to jobs in Hartford, especially at a time when we're losing jobs," Holmes said Monday.
The union workers, about two-thirds of them, gathered for a grim meeting Sunday morning in Newington. For now, there's nothing they can do but wait, and worry. It's especially baffling, Holmes said, because the companies have gradually brought back all but 26 of the 128 union members who were laid off in June 2010 from the West Hartford plant.
"We have had a strong contract and we've had a good working relationship here," Holmes said. "And that's why … we find it disturbing that jobs are being created elsewhere."
The company posted a brief announcement of the new plant on its website Dec. 1, and has plastered signs at the plant saying West Hartford operations won't be affected by the expansion.
"The new 16,000-square-foot facility will allow Colt's Manufacturing Co. to expand into new markets and business lines in parallel with the company's existing 100,000-square-foot facility in Connecticut. Specific information on facility renovations and employee requirements will be determined over the course of the next several months," the website said.
A company official did not return a call seeking further comment Monday. If the company said the expansion won't mean jobs moving from here to there, everyone has to take it at its word. Still, the signs are there — especially since most world-famous brands in high-end manufacturing have long since expanded beyond their home states
The pattern here is somewhat similar to what we saw at Pratt & Whitney in 2009 and 2010, when the company tried to eliminate 500 overhaul and repair jobs in Cheshire, moving them to lower-cost locations, but was thwarted by a jobs-can't-move contract provision that the Machinists union fought to save. In the long run, the union — whether it's the Machinists at Pratt or the UAW at Colt's — can only win that battle by offering concessions and proving to the company that its workers' skills are worth the extra cost.
How much extra? Holmes wouldn't detail the pay scales for UAW workers at Colt's, but news reports in Florida by The Associated Press and others pegged the average salary down there at $45,000 — most likely less than a worker makes in West Hartford.
The jobs didn't come cheap for the state of Florida, either — the AP report said the state agreed to kick in $1.6 million, compared with a $2.5 million investment by Colt's. Florida Gov. Rick Scott had to defend the move, but heck, Connecticut's guv, Dannel P. Malloy, has paid far more per job and no doubt would have jumped at a chance to do so for Colt's in West Hartford.
Colt's history was not lost in Florida, where TV stations played up the idea of having a 175-year-old company, and a gunmaker at that, in their midst. Back home, aside from being the company that gave birth to mass production, the privately owned Colt's had a nasty, four-year strike in the '80s that led to partial ownership by the union, and a seat on the board by the UAW, occupied by the venerable, retired Phil Wheeler.
So the pieces are in place for another colorful chapter as the UAW and Colt's negotiate a new contract by March. They'll do it against a painful economic backdrop. "Everyone that we've called back has been unable to find work elsewhere, or they have only had temporary work," Holmes said. "They've been overjoyed to come back."
And they'll do it amid the big question of whether Colt's is building strength in Florida so it can boost sales and keep its work in Connecticut, or hollowing out its home base.
"We were really caught off guard by this big unveiling of Colt down in Forida," Holmes said. "We would like the opportunity to create the jobs here. … We believe in our workforce and the skills of our workforce and we pride ourselves that we make the best firearms in the world."
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