Sikorsky Aircraft has threatened to drop the atomic bomb of labor relations — hiring permanent replacements for striking workers — generating outrage among workers and disappointment among politicians.

Bud Grebey, a Sikorsky spokesman, said permanent replacements are part of the company's contingency plan for a protracted strike, which enters its 20th day today.

"We have set no deadline for hiring replacement workers," Grebey said. "What we want is for our workers to come back to work."

During the first week of the strike, which began Feb. 20, the company had some salaried workers staff positions on the floor of Sikorsky's plants in Stratford, Bridgeport, Shelton, West Haven and West Palm Beach, Fla., after the 3,600 members of Teamsters Local 1150 began picketing.

The Teamsters rejected the company's contract offer primarily because it would have increased members' insurance payments, even tripling them by the third year. On the second week of the strike, Sikorsky began to advertise for temporary workers and in the third week, it was shipping parts for assembly elsewhere.

Grebey said some of the work is being done outside Connecticut. Harvey Jackson, Local 1150 president, called Grebey's remarks "irresponsible."

When asked if he thought Sikorsky and its parent company, United Technologies Corp., is attempting to break the union, Jackson said in any situation like this you have to consider that as a possibility.

"That's

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certainly something we don't take lightly," Jackson said, adding the company is telling workers who want to cross the line that they must drop their union membership.

While much has been made of how much Teamsters are losing by being on strike, Sikorsky's actions also cost money.

The National Association of Manufacturers said Friday that it would cost a company money to change the flow of production and outsource work, especially in an industry that already has a lot of work.

However, NAM noted that smaller and mid-sized factories could probably accommodate the extra work by adding a shift. It's unclear if Sikorsky's plan costs more than the amount the company is saving on pay and benefit costs while the Teamsters are out.

While many politicians concentrated on Sikorsky's decision to hire temporary workers and outsource production to other factories, the threat of permanent replacement caught the attention of one labor relations' expert.

John Cotter, assistant regional director of the Hartford office of the National Labor Relations Board, said hiring permanent replacements is "the atomic bomb of labor relations."

A company has the right to hire replacements, Cotter said, but if it is found that the company violated fair labor standards, it could be forced to hire back or at least pay back wages for all those affected. He said hiring replacements is not the same as terminating employees.

Local 1150 filed charges against Sikorsky charging it with unfair labor practices during the first week of the strike that are still being investigated, but Cotter said an investigation alone would not stop the company from hiring permanent replacements.

Cotter said large companies rarely use permanent hires in the face of a strike because the union members would continue to picket outside the company's gates, generating problems and bad publicity.

Teamsters on strike called to express their doubts that Sikorsky could actually farm out their jobs. They said many workers have more than two decades of experience building helicopters at Sikorsky, and that can't be learned from a book or class on machining.

"These are custom built machines," one striker said.

Reaction from some of the state's biggest names in politics was predictable, since all had been calling on Sikorsky to return to the bargaining table.

Connecticut Sens. Chris Dodd and Joe Lieberman, both Democrats, with Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, expressed their disappointment in Sikorsky's plans to ship work out of state and renewed their joint calls for the company to return to the bargaining table.

Sikorsky spokesmen have said in previous interviews that they bargained for two months, and until the union provides an alternative to the contract that includes the health plan the company wants, there's no reason to reopen negotiations.

Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4, said Sikorsky's actions "is close to a declaration of war against the union and is very unsettling."

Gov. M. Jodi Rell asked the two sides to try to find common ground and come to the table, even offering her own for their use. "I do not want temporary workers. I do not want replacement workers. I do not want work going of state," Rell said. "What I do want is for both sides to fully understand the wide-ranging effects this situation is having on individuals, families, communities and the state as a whole."

Strikers have said they hope the federal government steps in soon, but that doesn't appear likely.

A spokesman for the U.S. Army, one of Sikorsky's biggest customers, said Friday, in response to questions regarding the strike, "The Army has complete confidence that Sikorsky Aircraft will meet all contract obligations and continue to maintain superior quality controls at all levels of production."