A Dozen Protest Job Cuts Outside Pfizer in Groton

About a dozen protestors from the group Connecticut Working Families held a candlelight vigil outside Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in Groton today, to call attention to the company's jobs cuts despite receiving tax breaks.

"I just see corporate America getting a lot of breaks, and I don't see it getting passed onto the small guy," said Robert Corriveau, a carpenter from Waterford who is unemployed.

Lindsay Farrell, legislative director for Connecticut Working Families, said the group chose Pfizer in Groton for the protest because the company received more than $160 million in state and municipal aid to build facilities and expand in Connecticut, and is now is cutting jobs and taking them elsewhere. Pfizer announced in February it would cut up to 1,100 jobs within the next two years – 25 percent of its local workforce - in an effort to save costs and streamline operations.

 “It’s not right for taxpayers to pay a company to invest locally here and then they pick up and they leave, and they abandon us as soon as the money runs out,” she said.

Pfizer released this statement following the protest: "We are dedicated to being good corporate citizens and business partners in the communities where we live and work.”

Gil Anderson, of Ledyard, said he doesn't work for Pfizer but knows people who were laid off from the Groton facility. One, a single father with two daughters, took a job with another pharmaceutical company but had to relocate his family, Anderson said.

Anderson said he has laid off from Foxwoods Resort Casino in 2007 after having worked there ten years.

"I was director of business services for employment. Imagine that," he said. "I was hiring people and I got fired." he said.

He said trying to find a job has been a nightmare. He's 60 years old and has 30 years of management experience. He now works part-time as a chauffeur for a limousine company, and he'll stay there if he has to, he said.

He wanted to make his presence known at the protest.

"Pfizer and other big companies, they need to be accountable, if (they're) getting tax breaks," he said. "We don't get a tax break when we take out our retirement income."