Boeing, SPEEA wrangle over education benefits

Published 5:10 pm Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The Boeing Co. and its engineers union can’t agree over education benefits.

In September, Boeing said it would make changes to its tuition-reimbursement program this year. Employees will be reimbursed only for work-related courses. And the company will set some tuition caps and require workers in certain educational programs to remain with the company for a set amount of time following the completion of their degrees.

At the time of Boeing’s announcement, its unions said the changes didn’t apply to their members due to labor contracts already in place.

Nearly two months later, Boeing and the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace remain at odds over the education benefits. The union says Boeing is trying to make cuts to a benefit that’s already covered in their contract, thus violating labor law. The company says the tuition reimbursement plan isn’t explicitly covered in the contract with SPEEA.

In a letter to SPEEA, Boeing’s Jeffrey Janders gives union leaders until Nov. 30 to “bargain” over the program. Janders notes that the program is “clearly not in the contract” but could be part of mid-term negotiations if the union wants to do so.

In an email to other union leaders, SPEEA’s executive director, Ray Goforth, said he had offered to hold off-the-record “discussions” with Boeing but said the union has no duty to bargain a benefit it already has.

The two sides seem “poised on the brink” of litigation, Goforth wrote, adding that Boeing “chose the path of conflict.”