Officials size up labor impacts of Raytheon-United deal
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Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker
A day after Waltham-based Raytheon and the aerospace company United Technologies Corporation announced plans for a blockbuster merger, Gov. Charlie Baker said he does not yet know where in Massachusetts the new company will be located.
"It will probably take them six to nine months, anyway, to close the deal, and I imagine over that period of time some of that stuff will probably get worked out, but the really positive thing in this, they said point-blank that people are so fired up about the quality of the talent in Massachusetts that that made this decision a lot easier for both companies," Baker told reporters Monday afternoon.
The defense contractor Raytheon was originally founded in Cambridge in 1922. UTC, comprised of Collins Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney, is headquartered in Farmington, Conn.
The combined company, Raytheon Technologies, "will be headquartered in the greater Boston area, and will retain a corporate presence in existing locations," Raytheon and UTC said in a Sunday statement.
Sen. Eric Lesser, a Longmeadow Democrat, wrote on Twitter that a "sizable portion of UTC's current workforce" is from the Springfield area, about a 20-minute drive away from that company's facility in Windsor Locks, Conn.
"I personally know *many* constituents that work at the UTC facilities in both Windsor Locks and Farmington, engineers, electricians, accountants, sales people, etc. Almost all very good and well paying careers with great career paths at a variety of education levels..." Lesser wrote. "Long term, what will happen to those Western Mass UTC jobs as a result of this merger? If facilities are relocated to metro Boston, what will losing those jobs mean for Western Mass? It won't be positive. We need good jobs at BOTH ends of Massachusetts, and everywhere in between."
UTC and Raytheon said the transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2020. Raytheon Chairman and CEO Tom Kennedy will serve as executive chairman of the new company, and UTC Chairman and CEO Greg Hayes will be named CEO. Hayes will become chairman and CEO two years after the deal closes.
"By joining forces, we will have unsurpassed technology and expanded R&D capabilities that will allow us to invest through business cycles and address our customers' highest priorities," Hayes said in a statement.
Asked Monday about the merger, Baker said his office was not involved in negotiations to bring the headquarters to Massachusetts and that no incentives were offered.
"I will say that I did talk to a lot of people from Raytheon over the weekend who said that the combined company will be headquartered in Massachusetts, will be called Raytheon Technologies, and that one of the things that made this whole thing work was the reputation of the people in Massachusetts, their work ethic, their creativity, their imagination and, frankly, the tremendous pool of really talented STEM, both students and people who currently work in the field," the governor said.
Kennedy, of Raytheon, is scheduled to moderate a Boston College Chief Executives Club lunch conversation with General Dynamics Chairman and CEO Phebe Novakovic.
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