Boeing Union Files Unfair Labor Charge

Boeing’s mostly white-collar engineers’ union has filed an unfair-labor-practices complaint challenging the company’s plan for a joint venture with a New York flight-training operation.

At a meeting Friday between Boeing and the Seattle Professional Engineering Employees Association, which represents 23,000 of its workers, the two sides agreed to set up two subcommittees to address employee concerns, SPEEA president Charles Bofferding said.

At issue is a Boeing plan announced March 10 for a joint venture with FlightSafety International, a Flushing, N.Y.-based unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Each would contribute $100 million in assets to create an international training company for commercial jet pilots and ground crews. Boeing’s customer-training unit would be merged into the venture.

Union officials have challenged the deal, saying Boeing is illegally bargaining with union employees.