Further information or support to build a ranking committee. Contact the World Socialist website.
Pratt & Whitney strikes in Connecticut must vote on the provisional agreement at the general meeting on Tuesday. You should switch off the negotiation committee that tries to violate your will by invisible the contract on the eyes to the sight, and replacing you with a new one that is only chosen from the ranking list.
The development of rank-and-file strike committees is not only necessary to prevent a different betrayal and impose the democratic will of the employees, but also to expand the strike and to pursue a strategy for victory.
The strike of 3,000 workers in Pratt & Whitney in East Hartford and Middletown, Connecticut is located in the fourth week. Workers, members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), require higher wages, improved services, pension plans and guarantees for job security. After a 10-day strike in 2001, it has been the first strike in the company in over two decades.
The IAM negotiators ended the talks with Pratt & Whitney Management last Friday at 1 a.m. and immediately planned a vote on TA for Tuesday, May 27th. They have refused to publish details either to the public, the media or the workers themselves, and claimed that the employees only receive information during the coordination themselves.
In its explanation on Facebook, the union makes a show that strikes should remain on the line of the ribbon until the vote, but that doesn't mean that Monday is the memorial day Holiday.
Mystery deal can only be a sale
In a statement by Pratt & Whitney it says: “The company and the union have made a preliminary agreement on a revised contract offer that dealt with the most important points of the union members.” How these “important points of interest” are addressed in the TA is a mystery to the workers.
The Facebook page of IAM Lodge 700 published a statement by the union in which it is explained that “the members decide whether we have achieved our goals in terms of job security, wage security and pension security” in order to support them effectively. They state: “This new proposal has significant changes/improvements in all three core areas.”
Long experience shows that each contract introduced in such a way can only be a miserable sale. The bureaucrats undoubtedly try to hide larger concessions to management, which, when the contract is ratified, is only discovered by the employees after returning to work. When a worker on Facebook asked: “If the offer is already known, why are we not given information in advance? Why do we wait until morning to make a decision?”
The complete text of the provisional agreement (TA) should not only be available to employees at least one week before a vote, but the employees should also have time to meet their brothers and sisters to discuss what is in it and whether they meet their requirements.
It is not explained how Pratt & Whitney was considered less than 24 hours after restarting the conversations. When the workers had started the strike, management reacted by 77 percent after the vote to reject the first contract by immediately leaving the negotiations.
Before the negotiations were restarted last week, the company was already digging out for a bitter struggle in its heels. Until May 19, the employees and their relatives lost health care and other advantages of the company. Pratt & Whitney has threats Connecticut threatens to leave in search of lower wages.
The circumstances indicate that the contract is probably a recovery of the first deal, with a few percentage points being laid.
IAM bureaucrats protect the US war machine
The American oligarchy is determined that the defense systems in Connecticut and all over the country have to work around the clock to provide equipment for catastrophic new wars and bumper profits for defense companies.
Pratt & Whitney is a leading aviation and defense entrepreneur and creates a wide range of progressive drive systems in the two facilities of Connecticut. It delivers progressive aircraft systems to the US air weapon, including the F-22 raptor and F-35 programs for joint strike fighting aircraft. The company achieved a profit of $ 580 million in the first quarter of 2025, which rose by an increase of 41 percent around 2024.
The defense industry is located in the middle of a striking potter. Lockheed Martin Facilities in Orlando, Florida and Denver, Colorado, members of the United car workers, have been on strike since May. General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut, the submarine produced the U-Navy, preventing around 2,500 electrical workers from producing the US Navy at the same time as a last-finish deal. Lockheed Martin.
Instead of connecting to other defense workers and workers in other industries, the IAM closes the strike because it threatens the war policy of both parties in Washington who openly discuss the start of new wars in the Middle East and China. While workers work in the defense plants for low walks, the new expenditure law in the Congress contains the largest military budget in the history of US history, which is to be paid through massive cuts in social programs and the exploitation of defense and other employees.
This reveals the demands of union officials such as UAW President Shawn that war economy means economic prosperity for employees. These claims are made to justify the support for Trump and his “America First” guidelines. In reality, these war plans not only threaten PIT workers from different countries and threaten to unleash the Second World War, but also the working class is also caused to pay for them that are led in the interest of Wall Street.
Many of these devices are not only used against employees in other countries, but also against Americans. As part of the uprising of a presidential dictatorship, the Trump administration is threatened with referring to the uprising law to use troops to put down its political opponents.
Now it is time to take the initiative!
Now it is time to take the initiative, not to comply with management! There is an immense potential to expand the struggle. The strike is part of a growth of the working class, including the New Jersey Transit Strike last weekend and a number of strikes in nursing homes and hospitals.
But in each of these fights, employees not only have management, but also the union's bureaucrats, who deliberately work to prevent or limit strikes in order to preserve their corrupt relationships with management. New Jersey Transit Engineers were sent back by civil servants from the brotherhood of locomotives and train people without having seen the new contract, in an almost same way as the IAM and Pratt & Whitney.
Last November, the IAM revealed a strong strike of 33,000 Boeing machinists in the state of Washington, who voted two sales contracts before the union had managed to go through a deal that did not meet any of the employees' claims. After the strike, the workers were hit with mass distances, which the IAM did nothing to reject.
In contrast, the workers formed the Boeing workers' rank and file committee to fight against the IAM bureaucrats. “[violation of] The clear will of the ranking at every turn. “
This experience shows that the expansion of the struggle requires that workers build networks of ranked committees in order to get in touch directly and to transfer the power and initiative from the union apparatus to the workshop.
The workers of Pratt & Whitney have to hand in a “no” on Tuesday at the beginning of the second phase of the strike, which is led by a new strategy. They turn to their allies in the working class in the USA and in the world and have to make their strike part of a wider movement against exploitation, war and the journey to the dictatorship.
For more information or support in creating a round file committee, contact the World Socialist website.