Boeing engineers cool to contract offer

EVERETT — The Boeing Co.’s engineers union called the company’s initial contract offer “disappointing” Thursday, potentially setting the stage for a second labor strike.

“We’ve been waiting for a response from the company for more than two months and what we received today is disappointing,” said Ray Goforth, executive director for the union. “It is clear difficult talks remain.”

Boeing presented on Thursday its first full three-year contract offer to negotiators for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, which represents nearly 20,500 engineers and technical workers. Boeing said it included pay and pension increases and enhanced health care coverage with slight cost increases. But SPEEA said Boeing’s proposal failed to address adequately several key topics: outsourcing, pensions for new employees, health care costs and union representation in Utah.

The two sides declined to give specifics on the wage and pension increases.

“As we continue our discussions with SPEEA, we are working towards our goal of final contract offers that reward our engineering and technical employees for the amazing work that they do every day and ensure that Boeing continues to be on the cutting edge of innovation,” said Doug Kight, negotiator for Boeing, in a statement Thursday.

SPEEA negotiates separate contracts for its engineers and technical worker units. Boeing wants to wrap up contract talks with the union next week. The company and union’s contracts expire Dec. 1.

Outsourcing was a central issue in the recent Machinists strike. But Boeing’s Kight indicated Thursday that “the company and SPEEA seem to be converging on acceptable contract language” in regards to Boeing’s use of nonunion labor.

SPEEA and Boeing continue to disagree on how roughly 100 engineers in Utah should be represented. The engineers work on defense projects for Boeing in Ogden. SPEEA insists the Utah engineers be included in the Puget Sound region bargaining unit. Boeing argues the defense workers belong to a separate unit. SPEEA’s Goforth considers Boeing’s stance on Utah an attempt to divide the union.

The union also opposes Boeing’s plan to offer new workers a 401(k)-type pension plan, as compared with the traditional pension program offered to members. The Machinists similarly disliked Boeing’s retirement plan for new employees, and the company relented in its final offer presented even before the strike.

SPEEA has gone on strike against Boeing only twice since organizing in 1946. That’s in stark contrast with Boeing’s Machinists union, which has staged seven strikes, including this year’s 57-day work stoppage. SPEEA’s longest strike lasted 40 days in 2000.

Boeing is still assessing the damage from the 57-day strike by its Machinists union, which ended late Sunday. With Machinists off the job for nearly two months, Boeing shipped only 15 jets in September and October. The strike also caused the jet maker to delay again the first flight of its 787 Dreamliner, a new fuel efficient aircraft with roughly 900 orders.

Company officials Scott Carson, president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, and Jim McNerney, Boeing’s chief executive, recently have bemoaned the inability of Boeing and its unions to reach agreements on labor contracts.

“We have got to find a better way,” Carson said, in an address to business and community leaders in Seattle on Thursday.

After reviewing Boeing’s contract offer Thursday, SPEEA negotiators thought the company’s first pass looked like more of the same old thing.

“If Boeing is looking for a different process to reach agreements with unions without going through a strike, as Chief Executive Jim McNerney said this week, making an offer that completely misses the interests of our members is not that process,” said Alan Rice, a negotiator for SPEEA’s technical workers.

Negotiations between Boeing and SPEEA continue today.

Reporter Michelle Dunlop: 425-339-3454 or mdunlop@heraldnet.com.