Striking Sikorsky Aircraft workers faced snow and sleet and the cold shoulder from the company Thursday after Sikorsky told Teamsters Local 1150 it saw no reason to resume negotiations.

The union said it is planning to respond to Sikorsky's obstinacy with a rally of Teamsters, Carpenters and other unions from all over New England, possibly next week in Stratford.

Stratford officials were unavailable Thursday for comment on the possibility of hosting what could be a huge protest on Main Street.

In a letter addressed to Rocco Calo, Teamsters Local 1150 secretary-treasurer, Sikorsky said executives reviewed information gleaned from a Monday meeting with union officials and determined there is "no basis for resuming negotiations." The company said the union's failure to recognize that health care costs are a long-term problem requiring employees to shoulder some of the burden in order to control costs has left it no room to negotiate.

Bud Grebey, a Sikorsky spokesman, said the company's letter was forwarded to the state's Congressional delegation and Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who have all urged the company to come back to the table.

Grebey said Sikorsky appreciates the attention and understands the concerns of the state's political leadership.

The more than 3,500 hourly workers at Sikorsky's Stratford, Bridgeport, Shelton, West Haven and West Palm Beach, Fla., plants went on strike Feb. 20, because Sikorsky would not agree to hold the line

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on union members' health care benefits.

The union offered to give back a $2,000 per-member bonus and reduce the 10.5 percent raise being offered over the three-year contract to 9 percent.

But even with Teamsters paying more, Sikorsky said, it expects to spend more than $10,000 per union member for health care in 2007. The cost would be even more under the health care plan the union wants.

Harvey Jackson, Local 1150 president, said the local received the letter by fax Thursday and called it "a cheap tactic on the company's part."

Jackson said the letter was nothing more than an attempt to make people believe it is the union that is not willing to negotiate, when he and Calo have made it clear they are willing to begin talks at a moment's notice.

Local 1150 was planning to hold a rally in Hartford next week with International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa. But Jackson said the union now wants to hold it in Stratford at the plant.

"We think it's going to be big," Jackson said. Teamsters from all over New England have confirmed they are coming, as have locals of the Carpenters Union and other labor organizations, Jackson said. He said there's been an attempt to contact the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

The details are still being worked out, according to the IBT.

In the meantime, Local 1150 told strikers they have to pay their $58 per-month union dues in order to collect strike benefits this month. A strike captain at the Stratford plant told pickets the local is looking to see if dues can be waived.

Jackson explained the local and international's constitution require members to be in good standing to collect strike benefits, and that means paying dues.

Calo on Thursday corrected an earlier report, which said the local's leadership isn't being paid because it's not collecting dues. Calo said he decided the local's leaders wouldn't be paid because the striking workers are doing without their paychecks. The members' $232 a week strike pay comes from the monthly dues, Calo said. In other strike-related news, Local 1150 filed charges against Sikorsky with the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday over the company's refusal to bargain over health care, withholding vacation pay and the inclusion of the phrase "due to your termination" in COBRA notification letters sent to union families.

John Cotter, assistant regional director for the NLRB's Hartford office, confirmed Thursday the union filed a charge with three allegations.

He said an investigation could take from two weeks to eight months, depending on how complicated the case becomes.

Cotter would not discuss the details of the investigation.

  Several strikers were livid early in the week after their wives and children were sent the letters directly.

"They've never sent my wife anything, not even a Christmas card," said one striker.