EVERETT – On Nov. 2, the union of Boeing Co. engineers will have a new leader.
The Society for Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace has gone without an executive director since terminating Charles Bofferding’s contract in July. The group has developed a plan for selecting a new director – something SPEEA has not done in more than 16 years.
The 20,000 engineers behind Boeing’s commercial planes here in the Puget Sound region will need just the right person to lead them into contract negotiations with the aerospace giant next year. Both Boeing and SPEEA will send fresh faces to the negotiating table in 2008.
Under Bofferding’s guidance, the group walked out on Boeing in 2000, striking for 40 days.
Roughly 84 percent of SPEEA members in the region voted to accept the contract negotiated with Boeing in 2005, again under Bofferding’s direction. However, Bofferding did not enjoy such success in one of his last contract talks. Less than a month before Bofferding was let go, he saw Boeing defense workers at the Wichita Professional and Technical Unit in Kansas vote 408-353 to end their SPEEA representation.
Over the past month, SPEEA has formed a transition committee to determine the major responsibilities the next director will assume. Among other duties, he or she will direct day-to-day staff activities, offer financial responsibility, provide leadership and promote a positive public image.
Over the next few weeks, the committee will pound out a full job description and submit it to SPEEA’s executive board by Sept. 6. SPEEA’s board has a couple weeks to review the job description before officially advertising it Sept. 20.
The executive board has not decided how to handle executive director interviews, said Bill Dugovich, SPEEA communications director and interim chief of staff.
Will SPEEA’s board allow members to participate, in some way, in the interview process?
“It will depend on how many candidates there are,” Dugovich said.
SPEEA members typically do not vote on the hiring of an executive director as they do for executive board members.
“The board is responsible for hiring and overseeing the executive,” Dugovich said.
Of late, however, the board has been in a state of discord. The divided board voted 4-3 to end Bofferding’s contract.
Since then, several board members voted not to publish a column by SPEEA President Cynthia Cole in its monthly SpotLite magazine. On Thursday, two board members, Jill Ritchey and Mike Dunn, faced a recall vote.
Despite the board’s struggles, Cole said, “I’m hoping we can find a way to iron out differences.”
“I will do what I can do what I can to work with the board as president,” she said. “We’ll just keep conducting business.”
Reporter Michelle Dunlop: 425-339-3454 or mdunlop@heraldnet.com.
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