NLRB approves $17.6M labor settlement

In one of the biggest back-pay settlements in history, more than 500 former employees of Allied Signal Inc.'s Army engine plant in Stratford will receive $17.6 million from an agreement stemming from the plant closure in 1995.

The agreement resolves the monetary obligations of Allied Signal's successor, Honeywell Inc., arising from unfair labor' practice charges filed by United Auto Workers (UAW) Locals 1010 and 376.

The deal, announced Oct. 1, provides severance pay, interest, and medical and tuition reimbursements to be disbursed by the National Labor Relations Board complying with an order by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

"I commend the parties for their cooperative efforts in reaching this agreement that provides tangible and significant benefits to more than 500 employees," said Arthur F. Rosenfeld, NLRB's general counsel, in a written statement.

Morris Township, NJ.-based Honeywell said it is pleased with the settlement. NLRB ruling overturned

In April 2000, the NLRB ruled Honeywell violated a collective bargaining agreement of the National Labor Relations Act by relocating its manufacturing operation from Stratford to Phoenix.

The board ordered Honeywell to restore the manufacturing operation to its Stratford plant, to offer jobs to all the employees laid off and to pay those employees for the time they were laid off.

"Honeywell worked with Connecticut congressional, state, local and union officials in an attempt to keep the facility open when the Federal Base Realignment and Closing Commission decided to the close the facility in 1995, but without US. Army financial support, the company could not operate the plant at a competitive business level," the company said in its statement.

But the unions claimed Allied Signal did not appeal to Congress for funding and instead notified the unions it would close the plant.

A federal appeals court judge in Washington, D.C., overturned the NLRB ruling in May 2001, but in a separate case, the court ruled that Honeywell did violate a benefits agreement covering severance payments and health benefits for employees at the old Stratford plant.

Subsequent negotiations between Honeywell, UAW locals 1010 and 376, and NLRB's Hartford office resulted in the $17.6 million settlement.

Economic development

NLRB regional director Peter B. Hoffman noted that the agreement constitutes the largest NLRB back-pay case resolved to date in New England, exceeding the $13 million Colt Firearms settlement of 1990, and is one of the largest in the board's history.

Honeywell, a $24-billion diversified technology and manufacturing giant, said it made a "comparable" offer to the unions back in 1997, but "the union and the NLRB opted to pursue their challenge to that decision in court, rejecting all offers of settlement that would have provided severance packages to employees at the time of the plant closing." Honeywell employs 108,000 people in 95 countries.

The Stratford Army Engine Plant includes 57 buildings totaling 1.5 million square feet of space. Currently, the town of Stratford is working on a negotiating a transfer agreement with the Army that will allow it to buy the property for a minimal amount and pursue economic development opportunities.