TUKWILA — A 60% benchmark used in the labor contract negotiation process by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), is giving hints that a tentative 4-year deal between the union and Boeing may be rejected when member voting concludes at noon on August 21. Voting by SPEEA members began August 13.
When the contract offer was announced in July as a tentative agreement by negotiators on both sides, SPEEA officials expressed positive statements about the compensation in the 4-year deal. SPEEA officials said at the time the offer was announced, it “seems to represent true movement by Boeing and a desire to rebuild trust with its SPEEA-represented workforce.”
SPEEA IFPTE Local 2001, represents over 17,000 aerospace engineers, technical workers, pilots, and professionals in Washington, Kansas, Oregon, Utah and California and has two bargaining units–one for professional engineers and a second for technical workers.
Ray Goforth, SPEEA executive director, tells the EverettPost.com, “Under SPEEA’s system, once the negotiation teams reach a tentative agreement, our Bargaining Unit Councils (the elected shop stewards from each bargaining unit) are given an advisory vote with the option of including a statement that is shared with the general membership. At least 60% of the BUC must vote to recommend support or oppose in order for the advisory vote to be shared. In this case, the technical BUC voted to recommend that the members reject the contract proposal but chose not to include a statement explaining why. The professional BUC couldn’t reach 60% to support or oppose, so they are neutral. No statement needed to explain not taking a position.
“The BUC advisory vote is a quirk of SPEEA’s system (not required by law) and should be thought of as additional information to help the general membership decide how to vote (similar to how endorsements are shared in political campaigns as additional information for the voter to consider).
“Both BUCs voted to add a measure to the ballots asking the general membership to give the negotiation teams the authority to call a strike if they deem it necessary. Both BUCs advised the general membership to vote ‘yes’ on strike authorization regardless of how they vote on the contract proposal. The idea there being that if the contracts are rejected, the negotiation teams should return to bargaining with the additional leverage of being authorized to call a strike should the next round of negotiations not result in an offer they believe the membership will accept. The timing of any strike would be up to the negotiation teams but could not start before the expiration of the current collective bargaining agreements on October 6th.”
Aviation analyst and author, Scott Hamilton, sees these BUC results as an indication Boeing’s labor offer to SPEEA will be rejected, telling the Everett Post.com, “The devil is always in the details. Once the BUCs had the red-line copy of the contract to read and time to run their own financial analysis, they came up with items they didn’t like, or with different conclusions about the economics.”
Hamilton’s conclusion is two-fold, saying, “Given what I’ve been reading on social media and with those (SPEEA members) I spoke with, I think the contract is going down on the 21st and a strike will be authorized.”
If SPEEA rejects the tentative agreement on Aug. 21, it would likely send the union and Boeing back to the bargaining table to hash out a new offer with just over six weeks until the current contract expires.
With the existing SPEEA contract in effect until October 6, Hamilton notes, “There is plenty of time to come up with a new contract. Members I talked to believe Boeing can’t really afford to disrupt its recovery. ‘Afford’ in this context means shutting down deliveries and the impact this will have on customers and the company recovery. ‘Afford’ has less to do with Boeing’s financial condition, which is far better than it was in 2024 when 751 (Machinists’ union IAM 751) walked out. That said, there nevertheless would be an adverse financial impact to an extended strike.”
Hamilton is an editor at LeehamNews.com and author of “The Rise and Fall of Boeing, and The Way Back” and “Air Wars, the Global Combat Between Airbus and Boeing”.
