SPEEA rejects Spirit offer again
Published 3:30 pm Thursday, August 27, 2009
Engineers at Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems voted down the company’s second contract offer on Thursday.
About 93 percent of the SPEEA members who voted on Spirit’s contract proposal rejected the offer. And about 92 percent of the members voted to authorize a strike, though that doesn’t mean a strike is pending.
“The members have spoken very loudly – twice,” said Ray Goforth, SPEEA executive director, in a statement. “My hope is that the company will start listening.”
Wichita, Kan.-based Spirit supplies Boeing with composite fuselage barrels for its 787 Dreamliner as well as sections on the 737, 747, 767 and 777.
SPEEA leaders recently provided members a list of the top 10 reasons to reject Spirit’s contract.
The union also represents Boeing engineers in the Puget Sound region and reached a contract with Boeing for those workers late last year.
SPEEA represents about 775 engineers in Wichita, but only about half of those engineers belong to the union. SPEEA is asking a federal mediator to get involved in the next round of negotiations.
