Boeing, Technical Union Agree On Contract Engineers And Technical Workers To Vote On Latest Offer

Fri., Jan. 14, 2000

By Mike Roarke mikero@spokesman.com

For the second time in five months, the Boeing Co. softened its bargaining position with a big labor union instead of pushing chances of a worker strike to the brink.

After eight hours of wrangling Thursday, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) and Boeing reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year pact.

A previous contract Boeing had proposed to its engineers and technical workers in December was rejected last month by a 98 percent margin.

“The negotiating team is recommending this contract … it’s drastically different,” Dennis Davaz, SPEEA’s council representative in Spokane, said Thursday.

The technical employees union, with about 23,000 members, represents 58 workers at Boeing’s Airway Heights plant.

Davaz said many of the benefits Boeing excluded in its first offer were added on Thursday.

For instance, workers will not have to pay 10 percent of their health insurance premiums starting in 2001 - a move Boeing had proposed last month.

Boeing dropped the idea of making employees work weekends without premium pay, a requirement that was also removed in August negotiations with the International Association of Machinists.

“These changes amount to Boeing being responsive to employee and union concerns,” Peter Conte, a Boeing spokesman, said. “We believe this is an excellent contract.”

The new agreement sets minimum promotion amounts of $2,000 for technical employees and $3,000 for engineers who have their job description changed. It increases the monthly pension benefit from $40 to $50.

Engineers, however, received no pay raise guarantee through the life of the contract. And technical workers only gained an assured raise of 5 percent over three years.

For engineers, raises will be based on merit determined by supervisors, with an increase of 8 percent coming the first year.

What’s more, the SPEEA contract did not contain a lump sum bonus - a concession doled out to the machinists last year.

Davaz said SPEEA leaders decided last night that contract voting will be handled by mail.

According to a document on Boeing’s Web site, the company is giving the union until Jan. 31 to ratify the agreement, or else the offer will be withdrawn.

SPEEA has never been on a full-scale strike. In 1992 it conducted a brief demonstration against the company.

If the union had found Boeing’s contract offer on Thursday disagreeable, a walkout could have started as early as next week.

Most of the union’s members are located in the Seattle area.

Local journalism is essential.

Give directly to The Spokesman-Review's Northwest Passages community forums series -- which helps to offset the costs of several reporter and editor positions at the newspaper -- by using the easy options below. Gifts processed in this system are tax deductible.

Meet Our Journalists

Jesse Tinsley

Meet Jesse Tinsley. As a certified drone pilot, this veteran Spokesman-Review photographer often can be seen capturing beautiful aerial photographs of our region. Sometimes though, the job requires getting down with the dogs.
Jim Meehan

Jim Meehan is no stranger to Zag Nation. As the lead writer covering the Gonzaga men’s basketball team, he tells the stories behind the game and gets fans a bit closer to their favorite players.
Molly Quinn

There is no artist in Spokane like Molly Quinn. Her whimsical style is instantly recognizable to readers of The Spokesman-Review. She has painted gorgeous illustrations that instantly elevate the journalism accompanying it. She brings to life the stories that defy photography. She makes our pages better.
Rob Curley

Spokesman-Review editor Rob Curley loves to talk with people and learn about their lives, whether it's a best-selling author or a stranger he meets downtown on his walk to lunch. It's that inquisitive nature combined with a playful sense of storytelling that helps make our newspaper different than most.