SPEEA Engineers Overwhelmingly Reject Boeing Pay Offer

Negotiating teams with the Society for Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) have been meeting with Boeing after union members overwhelmingly rejected the U.S. manufacturer’s latest pay offer late on October 1. With a new negotiation schedule yet to be agreed, SPEEA members held “solidarity marches” on October 3 at Boeing sites including Everett and Renton in Washington state. In SPEEA’s Northwest Professional Unit, 95.56 percent of valid ballots cast were against the Boeing offer, while in the union’s Technical Unit the “no” vote was 97.19 percent. “We hope the vote results clear away the nonsense and allow us to begin substantive negotiations,” said SPEEA executive director Ray Goforth. “Until now, meaningful discussions have eluded us because the Boeing negotiating team was convinced that they understood the members better than the SPEEA negotiating team. With this question resolved, our expectation is that everyone can focus upon getting a mutually acceptable agreement.” Boeing’s offer to SPEEA’s 23,000 members was for a 3.5 percent raise for engineers for each year of the agreement and an average pay hike for technicians of 3 percent for the first year, followed by 2.5 percent in each subsequent year.