P&WA: No Layoffs in Town
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ZB A tabiM bid Whalers extend Special session: for gas station winning streak Who Is winner? ... page 3 ... page 7 ... page 14 Cold tonight; Manchester, Conn. cloudy Wednesday Tues., Jan. 26, 1982 — See page 2 25 Cents 935 losing jobs Pension 2 P&WA: advice sought No layoffs By Paul Hendrie ’4 . Herald Reporter The Pension Board wants to hire its own counsel to investigate plans in town to convert a Bennet School building to elderly housing, using town pen- sion funds, and it wants the Board of Directors to pay for the advice. The layoffs of 935 Pratt & Whitney number of workers being laid off by Until the ^ a r d of Directors con- employees this week will not affect reducing overtime, recalling sub- siders this request, the Pension those working at the Manchester stantial amounts of work from Board said it would refuse even to warehousing and experimental suppliers and transferring hundreds meet with the Board of Directors, casting plant, P&WA officials con- of emplo.vees to save jobs. The com- the town general manager or the firmed this morning. pany said it also considered a varie- town’s private consultant. ty of work-schedule changes before ’The Pension Board, at its meeting But the- layoffs are sure to send shock waves throughout the region, making the decision to lay off Monday afternoon, voted to ask the employees. directors to appropriate “suf- already reeling from earlier cut- backs by the giant employer. The The layoff announcement came as ficient’’ funding to hire both an at- aircrafe firm, based in East Hart- no surprise to the plant's union, the torney and an investment counselor. International Association of Board members said they need ford, is a major employer of Manchester workers. Machinists and Aerospace Workers, this expertise to determine whether The layoff will occur Friday and whose leaders had heard rumors of it would be wise to invest some $1 layoffs since December. million of pension money as a will bring to more than 4,000 the number of people who have been "We’re sick, naturally,” said mortgage for the project. Charles Tracy, leading business “This is a reasonable suggestion,” laid off at the giant jet engine plant J since October 1980. representative for the machinists. Mayor Stephen T. Penny said Mon- 'This thing (unemployment) is dya afternoon. “My only concern is The hourly and salaried employees who will be laid off — mushrooming nationwide" that may be the Pension Board should pay for its own advice.” most of whom have less than five ■years, service — will be notified Penny added that the “request bears scrutiny,” though he said the Wednesday, the company said Mon- day, refusal even to meet until the request is considered “may be a bit The layoffs in the manufacturing precipitous.” Herald photo by Tarquinlo and. commercial products divisions Reagan A ’The Bennet project would involve will affect 600 workers at P&WA’s combining town pension funds and No trouble keeping it cold East Hartford plant; 160 in private investment to spur conver- Southington; 140 in Middletown and sion of the vacant top two floors of 35 in North Haven. speaks Ira Rutchik and Tracy Sylvester pack Ice the Ice P&WA’s workforce will drop from one of the Bennet buildings to 28 cream cold Is the least of their elderly housing units. cream at Royal Ice Cream, 27 Warren St.. worries. a high of 39,500 two years ago to 31,- Proponents of the project have With this month’s low temperatures, keeping 838 after Friday. Affected are 800 hourly production said the pension fund would benefit by putting up the mortgage, because workers and more than 100 salaried tonight N return on the investment would be workers in the subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. — Connecticut’s higher than the fund now earns. WASHINGTON (UPl) — Presi- “The pension fund has not been Students enrolling at MCC largest private employer. There were no plans for layoffs at dent Reagan addresses the nation performing up to the rate of expec- and Congress tonight on the State of tations,” Penny said Monday. the company’s new plant in North Berwick, Maine, where 100 were the Union. Sources say he will “We’re trying to meet that need propose no major tax hikes but and, at the same time, meet another laid off last fall. to avoid Social Security cuts Again, the company blamed recommend most federal social need of the town — housing.” programs be turned over to the “financial difficulties being But Pension Board members said states. they do not have enough information By Nancy Thompson experienced by the world’s airlines” for the layoffs. The ailing economy is casting a yet to decide whether it really would Herald Reporter .shadow over Reagan's presidency, be a good investment. They said In a prepared statement, P&WA A number of high school seniors said the slump has led many airlines now entering its second year, and it there are a number of unanswered was expected to be a major focus of questions about the project. will start classes at Manchester to “cancel or defer many engine Community College this week, orders and led to a continued reduc- Reagan’s second State of the Union “In the event of . a foreclosure, I leaving their high schools in order to tion in spare parts purchases.” address. really don’t know who would end up hang onto their Social Security Spare parts make up 50 percent of ‘I think there'll be some sur- with the building,” said Pension prises” White House Counselor payments. the firm’s business. B oard m em ber R ich ard C. Andrew Patterno, director of ad- Since October 1980, P&WA has Edwin Meese said of Reagan’s Woodhouse. “We have to determine m inistrations for MCC, said laid off 4,265 workers at its four speech that will be nationally broad- whether or not one agency of the between 15 and 20 students have Connecticut plants and one in cast. town could invest money in property applied for early admission to the Maine, including layoffs of 590 last Reagan was to brief the owned by another agency of the college, including seniors at high March, 1,000 last May and 1,500 last Republican congressional town and to examine what would schools in Manchester, Vernon, September. leaeiership on the highlights of his happen in the event of a foreclosure. speech at a morning meeting and South Windsor, Glastonbury and Each time, the company at- We need to consider the worst possi- Rockville. tributed the layoffs to a continuing unveil details to his Cabinet at noon ble case.” TTie rush to start college is the slump in the commercial engine Sources said Reagan rejected the That question makes the town at- result of a change in the Social business. In September, the com- advice of his fiscal advisers and has pany said the slump was made 2 torney’s office an inappropriate Security policy which will cut off no plans to propose increases in source of advice. Pension Board payments for children over age 18 worse by the nationwide strike of excise taxes despite a projected members said, because of a poten- unless they are enrolled In a college 12,000 air controllers. deficit in fiscal 1983 of more than $90 tial conflict-of-interest between two, by May 1. P&WA said it has minimized the billion. town agencies. Before budget cuts made last Pension Board members implied summer, a child entitled to Social the town was rushing into the Security payments would be able to project. collect monthly payments until age “That’s what bothered me the 22 if he was enrolled full-time at a Herald photo by French other night,” said Chairman Fred college. Transit Authority 6 W. Geyer. “They’re going on an aw- Now there will be no more ful lot of assumptions.” payments to students unless they Shelby Strano, a senior at Manchester High School, and Harry Maidment, her guidance counselor, look over a course “We’re moving on a very fast , are enrolled in college by May 1. All payments to college students will be cat9logue for Manchester Community College. Miss Strano will track,” said Penny. He said he urges bus route cut phased out over the next four years, start classes at MCC this week in order to keep her Social hopes the Pension Board would agree to finance the mortgage, “but with monthly payments cut 25 per- Security benefits during her college years. ' cent each year until there are none. The Connecticut Transit Authority recommendations were made to We’ll go without them if we have has recommended that the reverse to.” According to Anne Beechler, MHS CCI’OG, the U.S. Department of guidance directoil, only one MHS Paterno said the MCC admissions performing college work anti R>at commuter bus .route from Hartford Transportation and the U.S. Justice student has been identified who will office has received several calls arrangements have been made for to the Pioneer Industrial Park here Department. Connnecticut Transit ljg affected by the cutback. TTiat stu- from guidance counselors in the last the student to earn his or her high be abandoned, because an Average is an arm of the state Department of dent Shelby Strano, will start at week. Part of the problem with the school diploma. of fewer than three riders a day use Transportation. I n d f i X week. Miss Strano wiil cuts is that Social Security “We don’t want to be in a position the route.