Earlier this week, workers at Spirit Aerosystems filed a petition that challenges union representation at the Wichita, Kan., factory.
About 2,400 professional and technical workers, who are represented by SPEEA, will vote June 24 on whether to oust the union. The vote does not extend to the 675 Spirit engineers also represented by SPEEA.
The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace was scheduled to begin contract talks with Spirit next week. A key Boeing supplier, Spirit is midway into a contract with the union but is due to negotiate wage and benefit adjustments this summer.
“We are confident employees will recertify our union,” said Bob Brewer, SPEEA Midwest director, in a press statement today. “When we get to negotiations, we’re going to get the bonus employees deserve and bring home the benefit and wage increases they need to ensure a stable future for themselves, their family and the company.”
In order for the petition to be valid, anti-union organizers had to collect signatures from 30 percent of the union’s members. An organizer told the Wichita Eagle that 30 to 50 percent of the union’s members signed the decertification petition.
SPEEA says that its polling indicates increasing union support from employees in Wichita. The union also begins contract talks with the Boeing Co. this fall.
Workers at a Boeing defense site in Kansas ended their union representation last year in a 408-353 vote.
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