EVERETT — Amid a labor strike by its Machinists union, the Boeing Co. outlined its priorities for a new contract with its engineers and technical workers in a meeting Wednesday.
“Although the (Machinists) strike is a disappointment, it doesn’t change the importance of negotiating this contract with SPEEA that’s good for employees and good for our company,” Boeing’s lead negotiator, Doug Kight, said in a statement Wednesday.
Kight leads contract talks for Boeing with both the Machinists and the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace.
Last week, SPEEA gave Boeing its contract proposal, which included health-plan improvements, better job security guarantees and wage increases up to 10 percent annually for the three years of the agreement. The union also wants to see a bump in overtime rates for engineering employees.
On Wednesday, Boeing noted that both the technical and engineering employee units represented by SPEEA already receive market-competitive salaries. Boeing also seemed to dismiss the idea of increasing overtime pay for engineers, saying that many other companies rarely give that benefit.
The company said it would discuss the market data further with the union in October, when the two head into serious negotiations.
Boeing already is contending with a work stoppage with its Machinists union. Roughly 27,000 Machinists, most in the Puget Sound region, walked off the job in the early hours of Sept. 6, shutting down production work on Boeing’s commercial jets.
The Machinists noted cost-shifts in health care, job security, pension and wages as their main reasons for striking. The union did succeed in getting Boeing to drop its request to offer a 401(k)-type retirement savings to new Machinists rather than the traditional pension plan. In its discussions with SPEEA on Wednesday, Boeing again noted its desire to do away with the traditional pension program for new engineers and technical workers.
Boeing and SPEEA head into contract negotiations with a fair amount of old baggage between them. The two are already battling over the union’s representation of defense workers in Utah. SPEEA claimed Boeing violated the contract when it made changes to the health care plan during the last three years. Finally, the union expected Boeing to do more in regard to finding an alternative plan for health care for early retirees.
SPEEA’s contract expires Dec. 1. The engineers and technical workers union has more than 24,000 members covered under this contract with Boeing.
The engineers have only gone on strike against Boeing twice — and never in the same year as the Machinists.
But SPEEA spokesman Bill Dugovich told The Herald last week that a back-to-back strike by the Machinists and SPEEA is possible this year. “We’re paying close attention to the strike. Their issues are our issues,” he said of the striking Machinists.
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