Boeing engineers, tech workers ratify contracts

[December 02, 2008]  SEATTLE (AP) -- Boeing Co. engineers and technical workers have voted to ratify new contracts, ensuring four years of labor peace at the company's commercial airplane operations.

In votes tallied Monday night after balloting by mail, 79 percent of members in the professional unit of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace approved the deal. Union spokesman Bill Dugovich said the vote was 69 percent for ratification in the technical unit.

The two agreements were reached Nov. 14 following 2 1/2 weeks of negotiations. They include pay raises averaging 5 percent a year, higher pension payments and improved medical coverage with small cost increases for employees.

"Passage of these contracts represents a first step toward restoring the relationship between Boeing management and its engineering and technical work force," said Ray Goforth, SPEEA executive director.

"Management really squandered the trust of its engineering and technical work force with the 787 program," he said. "Not only did they disregard what the engineering and technical work force told them needed to be done, but when all the problems they predicted manifested themselves, Boeing relied on the same work force it had ignored to fix the problems."

Goforth said new contract language on outsourcing, for instance, "is supposed to give our work force significant input when decisions are being made."

Boeing announced last month that the first test flight of its long-delayed new 787 jetliner has been postponed until next year. It blamed an eight-week strike by its commercial airplane production workers, represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. Machinists approved a new four-year contract on Nov. 1.

But even before the strike, the highly anticipated airplane had been hampered by lengthy delays caused by production glitches partly due to a reliance on overseas suppliers.

Boeing praised the new SPEEA contracts Monday night.

The agreements "will help us build a better relationship with SPEEA and also to work with its leaders so they can better understand our business needs, staffing requirements and allow them an opportunity to provide input," said Karen Fincutter, a spokeswoman for Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

"We have four years now to focus on building and designing our planes and meeting our commitments to our customers," she said.

In a statement, Doug Kight, Boeing vice president of human resources, said: "These contracts reward our employees for the valuable contributions they make to Boeing's success. These agreements also enable us to remain competitive and position Boeing to continue to win new business during these challenging economic times."

SPEEA officers and negotiators had recommended approval of the two contracts, one covering about 14,200 scientists, engineers and other professionals with average salaries of $92,161, and the other for nearly 6,700 computer technicians, manual writers and other white-collar hourly workers paid an average of $68,157.

Nearly 20,000 of the affected workers are in the Seattle area and about 550 are in Ogden, Utah; Palmdale, Calif., and Gresham, Ore. The new contracts go into effect Tuesday.

A strike would have been the sixth in less than two decades to hit Boeing's commercial operations following previous Machinists strikes of 28 days in 2005, 69 days in 1995 and 48 days in 1989 and a 40-day SPEEA walkout in 2000. SPEEA's only other strike was a largely symbolic one-day walkout in 1993.

As in the machinists' strike, the bulk of the employees covered by the SPEEA contracts work on Boeing commercial aircraft, with the rest in military and other government work.

SPEEA also has been negotiating with Boeing since Nov. 17 on a contract covering about 700 engineers in Wichita, Kan., although talks were suspended for most of Thanksgiving week. The contract expires Friday and covers mostly military work.

Boeing announced Nov. 19 that 800 salaried and hourly jobs in Wichita would be cut over the next year.

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On the Net:

Boeing: http://www.boeing.com/

SPEEA: http://www.speea.org/

[Associated Press]

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