Boeing engineers retain SPEEA posts in failed recall

Two executive board members in Boeing’s engineering union kept their positions Thursday after a motion to recall them failed. The vote, however, emphasizes recent turmoil among the engineering group’s leaders.

Jill Ritchey and Mike Dunn serve as Northwest vice presidents on the executive board of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, the union representing nearly 20,000 Boeing Co. engineers in the Puget Sound.

Members of SPEEA’s Northwest Council considered a motion to recall Ritchey and Dunn at the council’s Thursday meeting.

The vote was 37 for the recall, 38 against it with one abstention. The recall failed. It would have needed two-thirds of the vote to succeed.

The SPEEA members who brought forward the recall motion pointed to Ritchey’s and Dunn’s decision to oust executive director Charles Bofferding.

They also proposed a measure to recall Dave Baine and Bob Wilkerson, SPEEA’s executive secretary and treasurer, since the two also voted to terminate Bofferding. The motion was reviewed but determined to be outside the NW Council’s jurisdiction.

The SPEEA executive board intends to hire Bofferding’s replacement before the end of the year. The group heads into contract negotiations with Boeing in 2008.