UTC Power slowdown puts 25 workers on 2-week unpaid furloughs

Fuel cell manufacturer UTC Power has placed 25 hourly workers at its South Windsor location on a two-week unpaid furlough, company and Machinists union officials said Friday.

The furlough is necessary because of an issue with fabricated parts that is forcing it decrease production, company spokeswoman Annie R. Donnelly said.

“Our commitment to delivering quality fuel cells is what drives our industry-leading durability and performance. We are working to return to regular production activities as soon as possible,” Donnelly said.

The furloughs, essentially temporary layoffs, involve roughly 4.6 percent of UTC Power’s total payroll of 540 employees and 16 percent of the company’s 155 hourly workers.

James Parent, assistant directing business representative for the Machinists union’s District 26, confirmed the furloughs. Parent said he has been told that the furloughs will be on a “rolling” basis, with 25 people now on furlough for two weeks, when another group of 25 will be put on furlough.

Parent said the company has not indicated how soon the series of temporary layoffs might end. But the company has said it has to resolve an issue over substandard parts supplied by an unidentified overseas subcontractor before full production can resume.

UTC Power makes fuel cells to provide power to buildings, buses, as well as for the U.S. space program. Fuel cells produce electricity, heat, and water without combustion — and with near zero air pollution — through a chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen rather than through combustion.

With the end of NASA’s Space Shuttle program expected this spring, UTC Power’s fuel cell production for the shuttle has been in flux. Company officials have said that shuttle-related fuel cell work has been winding down for some time, and that the company has been adjusting and reassigning staff to other areas of the business.

UTC Power, which is a subsidiary of Hartford-based United Technologies Corp., has been experiencing an upswing in its non-space-related fuel cell business in recent months, including the addition of four fuel-cell-hybrid-electric buses to the Connecticut Transit fleet in October. And last summer, the company delivered the largest fuel cell produced thus far to power a major residential building in New Haven, the 360 State Street residential-commercial complex.

Source: Howard French, Journal Inquirer