In a statement set to be released later this morning, and obtained exclusively by FlightBlogger, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), Boeing’s engineers union, is using the specre of leveraging “a thousand possible chokepoints” if “negotiations don’t result in a contract that honors the contributions of SPEEA members to Boeing’s success.”
The comments come from Ray Goforth, SPEEA’s Executive Director, just 24-hours before main table negotiations are set to begin in Seattle between the two parties on Tuesday.
Goforth cited a meeting Friday between himself, SPEEA President Cynthia Cole and leaders of the UNI Global Union, the world’s largest union coalition to discuss the negotiations and plan for international support for the technical workforce.
A message (or tweet), sent from SPEEA’s Twitter feed provided a glimpse into the Union’s strategy and potential tactics for engaging Boeing in its contract negotations.
“Met with representatives from
international unions about coordinating labor actions at global
suppliers in support of SPEEA negotiations,” said SPEEA’s tweet dated Friday, October 24 at 9:01 PM PT.
The decentralized, yet interconnected nature of Boeing’s supply chain, which SPEEA feels should be reigned in and brought back under the operation of Boeing, is being transformed from a point of grievance to a point of leverage by the engineers union.
The late hour of receipt of the statement and publication prohibited a comment from being obtained from Boeing. This story will be updated later today to reflect Boeing’s point of view in the interest of fairness to both parties.
SPEEA’s negotiations involve two contracts. The first covers 13,390
engineers and a second for 6,889 technical workers. The majority of
employees are based in the Puget Sound region, but also cover some
employees in Oregon, Utah and California. Both contracts expire
December 1.
In addition, negotiations for 700 engineers at Boeing’s Wichita facility begin November 13, with a contract expiration on December 5.
On the other side of the country in Washington, DC, senior leadership from Boeing and its machinists union continue to negotiate behind closed doors in an effort to end the eight week old strike that has halted jetliner production in Washington, Oregon and Kansas.
Neither side has released any public statement regarding the progress of the negotiations.
Read the full release (PDF).
This post was originally published to the internet between 2007 and 2012. Links, images, and embedded media from that era may no longer function as intended.
This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.