Boeing Workers Walk Out Engineers At Airway Heights Plant Join Strike

More than 50 workers at the Boeing Inc. plant in Airway Heights picked up their coffee cups, purses and hats Wednesday morning and marched through the factory past cheering co-workers.

They joined more than 13,000 other members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace in one of the largest white-collar strikes in U.S. history.

“It’s about respect,” said James Wallace, 34, as he joined the picket line at the plant entrance on Highway 2. Wallace said Boeing’s machinists union, which negotiated a contract last year, got much better treatment from the company, including guaranteed pay raises and signing bonuses.

In negotiating with SPEEA, Boeing has insisted on mostly selective pay hikes, reductions in life insurance benefits, changes in health insurance and no signing bonus.

Despite the last-minute intervention of a top federal mediator, contract talks between Boeing and the union broke down late Tuesday. Boeing withdrew its offers, and no further talks have been scheduled.

“They walked in, they thought they could bully us, and they were wrong,” said SPEEA Executive Director Charles Bofferding.

Boeing’s first offer was voted down in December by 98 percent of SPEEA’s members. The second offer, however, was only narrowly defeated last week, 51 percent to 49 percent.

Minutes after the strike began, Peggy Doughty stopped at her car to grab a new pair of earmuffs, before joining the Airway Heights picket line. The 62-year-old grandmother has worked on and off at the plant since 1991. She said the strike isn’t as important for her, since she expects to retire soon. “But for those people who are here another 10 years, this contract is enormous,” Doughty said. “That’s why I’m out here.”

Many in the group, including Chuck Anderton, began their shifts at 6 a.m., worked a few hours, then walked out.

“I’ve been out here before,” the systems analyst said, shaking his head. In 1995, he went on strike as a Boeing machinist and was out of work for 69 days. “I didn’t think I’d have to do this again.”

This is the first full-scale strike that SPEEA, Boeing’s second-largest union, has had in its 56-year history. The union represents about 22,000 engineers, scientists, manual writers, computer software designers and technicians in Washington, Kansas, Florida, California, Oregon, Texas and Utah.

About 63 percent of those represented are dues-paying SPEEA members, although the union estimated that several thousand more workers had joined Wednesday after the strike was called. Only one represented worker in Airway Heights has declined to join. When the strike was called, that person, who wasn’t identified, stayed inside the plant.

Most of the Boeing workers SPEEA represents are in Western Washington.

The engineers and technicians outside said they thought their absence from the plant would at least slow down operations.

Among them were engineers who handle customer problems with airplane equipment. “There’s going to be a significant impact to the flying public,” without those engineers to consult, claimed Allan Trudel, a process engineer who started at the plant when it opened in 1990.

Meanwhile, inside the plant, operations continued with managers and several hundred remaining workers, including machinists union members, whose contract prohibits them from honoring the strike.

The disruption included at least some deliveries of supplies as members of other unions, such as the Teamsters who drive United Parcel Service Trucks, refused to cross the picket line.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.