Boeing Workers Hold Off On Strike

Plans for a strike today by Boeing techni- cal workers and engineers were delayed at the request of the top federal mediator.

Richard Barnes, head of the federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, asked the union to postpone its plan to strike so he could meet next week with negotiators for Boeing and the 22,600 members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace.

Both the company and the union agreed to Barnes’ request.

“He’s asked the company not to do a lockout and asked the union not to strike until he has an opportunity to intervene next Monday or Tuesday,” said Dennis Davaz, the union’s representative in Spokane.

Some 57 Boeing workers at the plant in Airway Heights are affected by the decision.

“There’s people that were ready,” Davaz said. “They were primed to go out.”

The union was counting ballots Wednesday evening on new contract offers from the company. Union representatives said the offers likely would be rejected.

Davaz said Spokane SPEEA members were set to begin picketing the plant at 9 a.m. today. Such a work stoppage would cripple, if not halt, operations at the Spokane plant, Davaz said.

This is the second set of proposals the company has presented to the union. The first proposals were soundly rejected - 99 percent of the engineers and 98 percent of the technicians voting against the offer.

The proposed contract would have members pay 10 percent of their health insurance premiums. A lump-sum signing bonus that machinists received in their new contract last year wasn’t offered to SPEEA members. Under the offers, professional workers would make a minimum of $35,000 a year, with a maximum of more than $105,000. Technical workers would have a minimum of $20,500 and a maximum of $88,200.

The SPEEA contracts expired Dec. 1 and were extended until Jan. 13. Members have worked without contracts since then.

“We’re not stopping this strike forever,” SPEEA President Craig Buckham said. “We’re simply giving this new turn of events a chance to succeed. We hope it will, but we’re not throwing away the signs.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.