Boeing Machinists strike may come to an end

UPDATE: Boeing and its Machinists’ union have reached a tentative agreement to end the labor group’s strike, now in its 52nd day.

Here’s our preliminary report.

Will the union’s members approve the new offer? Post a comment below or send me an e-mail.

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The Boeing Co. and its engineers union have delayed contract talks by one day to allow the company to continue mediated negotiations with its Machinists union.

Boeing was supposed to start serious talks with SPEEA Tuesday. Its negotiators have been locked in mediated discussions with the Machinists since Thursday. About 27,000 Machinists went out on strike Sept. 6.

The engineers union announced the postponement of negotiations in a press statement Monday. Boeing’s spokesman for labor relations with the Machinists couldn’t confirm whether mediated talks had been extended through Tuesday.

Here’s SPEEA’s statement:

Responding to a request by The Boeing Company, the union representing 20,300 engineers and technical workers agreed to delay negotiations one day to give the company extra time to complete negotiations and end the strike by the International Association of Machinists (IAM).

The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001, will now start main table negotiations with Boeing at 9 a.m., Wednesday (Oct. 29), at the Doubletree Hotel in SeaTac. The union and Boeing originally planned to start negotiations Tuesday for new three-year contracts. Boeing officials called SPEEA shortly after noon on Monday to request the delay.

“We agreed to this one-time delay with the hope that Boeing will use the time to conclude negotiations with the IAM,” said SPEEA Executive Director Ray Goforth.

More than 27,000 Boeing employees represented by the IAM struck Boeing Sept. 6 after overwhelmingly voting down the company’s offer for a new contract. The two sides are meeting in Washington, D.C., in an effort to end the 52-day strike.

SPEEA talks involve two contracts. The first covers 13,390 engineers and a second contract for 6,889 technical workers. While the majority of workers work in the Puget Sound region, the contracts cover some employees in Oregon, Utah and California. Both contracts expire Dec. 1.

Negotiations for 700 engineers at Boeing Wichita remain scheduled to start Nov. 13. The Wichita contract expires Dec. 5.

SPEEA negotiation teams are prepared for difficult talks. In May, union leaders started advising members to prepare for a possible strike. SPEEA has struck Boeing just twice since organizing in 1946. The first was a one-day strike Jan. 19, 1993. The second was a 40-day strike that stopped deliveries, customer service, engineering and technical work at Boeing from Feb. 9 to March 20, 2000.

A local of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), SPEEA represents more than 24,400 aerospace professionals at Boeing, Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kan., Triumph Composite Systems, Inc., in Spokane, Wash., and at BAE Systems, Inc., in Irving, Texas.