SPEEA engineers, technical workers at Boeing split votes

The following is from the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE 2001:

SEATTLE (March 10, 2020) – With engineers voting to accept a new contract with The Boeing Company and technical workers voting to reject, the two bargaining units will be covered by significantly different agreements for at least the next two years.

Votes tallied by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001, show engineers in the Professional unit approved their agreement by a vote of 3,837 (Accept) to 3,658. Casting ballots on a similar agreement, technical workers rejected their contract offer by a vote of 1,268 (Accept) to 1,654 (Reject). The result gives engineers a new contract that corrects issues with salary raise pools, provides Parental Leave and access to Washington’s Paid Family and Medical Leave program. The new agreement takes effect immediately and runs until Oct. 6, 2026.

Technical workers remain covered by their existing contract which remains in place until Oct. 6, 2022.

“SPEEA is a very democratic union and these results clearly bear that out,” said SPEEA President Joel Funfar. “The members had their say, and we respect their decisions. The engineers have a new contract, and the technical workers will now look to full negotiations in 2022.”

Negotiated by the union’s member-elected, seven-member Executive Board, the contracts cover 12,764 engineers in the Professional union and 4,705 workers in the Technical unit. While the majority of covered employees are in the Puget Sound region of Washington state, the contracts also cover SPEEA-represented employees in Oregon, Utah and California.

The union’s Executive Board recommended bargaining unit members accept the contract offers while the Northwest Council did not make a recommendation.

The contract offers grew from meetings between Boeing and SPEEA to resolve outstanding issues. The company presented its offers in early February. Ballots were mailed on Feb. 21 with members having until 5 p.m., Monday (March 9) to cast their vote. Union tellers counted the votes and certified the election results Monday evening at SPEEA headquarters.

A local of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), SPEEA represents 20,125 aerospace professionals at Boeing, Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kansas, and Triumph Composite Systems, Inc. in Spokane, Wash.

The Stand (Feb. 14, 2020) — SPEEA members will vote on contract extension with Boeing