The outcome of union contracts covering nearly 20,400 engineers and technical workers at The Boeing Company will be decided on Monday (Dec. 1) when the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001, counts member ballots.
Two contracts are involved in the negotiations. The first covers 13,898 engineers in the SPEEA Professional Bargaining Unit. The second contract covers 6,576 technical workers in the union's Technical Bargaining Unit. While the majority of workers are in the Puget Sound region, the contracts cover employees in Oregon, Utah and California. Both contracts expire Dec. 1.
Ballots were mailed to members Nov. 17 after nearly three weeks of main table negotiations between the union and Boeing. SPEEA members have until 5 p.m., Monday, Dec. 1, to return their ballots to SPEEA for counting.
Union negotiators and the bargaining unit councils recommended members accept the contract offers.
In addition to voting to accept or reject the offers for new four-year contracts, SPEEA members will vote on strike authorization. Strike authorization grants union negotiators the authority to call a strike if necessary. Both votes only require a simple majority to pass.
SPEEA has struck Boeing only twice since organizing in 1946. The first was a one-day strike on January 19, 1993. The second was a 40-day strike that stopped deliveries, customer service, engineering and technical work at Boeing from Feb. 9 to March 20, 2000.
Negotiations for 700 engineers at Boeing Wichita resume on Monday, Dec. 1. The Wichita contract was extended to allow for negotiations beyond the original Dec. 5 expiration.
A local of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), SPEEA represents more than 24,500 aerospace professionals at Boeing, Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kan., Triumph Composite Systems, Inc., in Spokane, Wash., and at BAE Systems, Inc., in Irving, Texas.
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