...As Striking Workers Plan To Rally In CT

Sikorsky Aircraft announced earlier this week it has selected Bozeman, MT as the site of a new engineering design center that is expected to employ 40 engineers by the end of the year.

Citing a shortage of qualified engineers in its home state of Connecticut, last November Sikorsky announced the search for another state to be the site for at least one engineering design center.

Mark Miller, vice president of research and engineering with Sikorsky, cited strong university engineering programs as one of the main reasons for locating the center in Bozeman.

It is hoped the work performed in Bozeman -- supporting the company's aftermarket, commercial and federal government business, including airframe and subsystem engineering work -- will free up Sikorsky's other plants to focus on new programs...

...That is, if employees at those plants ever return to work.

Some 3,600 workers are still walking the picket lines after striking February 20. The workers -- members of Teamsters Local 1150 -- walked out in protest of increased employee payments for health insurance.

Many of those workers -- and perhaps several thousand more -- are planning to rally Thursday, March 9, in front of the main gate at Sikorsky's Stratford, CT plant. James P. Hoffa, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, is scheduled to lead the rally.

"Teamsters from all over the country will attend," said Rocco Calo, secretary and treasurer of Local 1150, to the Waterford Republican American. "We are hoping to bring to light our issues and urge the company to come back to the table."

Union leaders are billing the rally as "the largest Teamster rally ever on the East Coast."

FMI: www.sikorsky.com; www.teamsters1150.org