Boeing and engineers’ union reach tentative contract agreement

By Dan Catchpole

SEATTLE, Sept 11 (Reuters) – Boeing and its engineering union reached a tentative contract agreement on Friday, union officials said. 

The four-year offer includes higher general wage increases than the first offer, which members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) overwhelmingly rejected in an August 21 vote.

If approved, the roughly 17,000 members of SPEEA’s professional and technical units would get a 10% wage raise on October 16, followed by 4% raises plus merit-based increases in 2027 through 2030. 

“Our final contract offer addresses the top priorities identified by our employees and SPEEA’s bargaining teams, including an immediate wage increase and larger wage pools with guarantees,” Boeing’s Ben Nimmergut, vice president and functional chief engineer for production engineering, said in a statement.

The latest offer includes changes to work-from-home policies and overtime limits for professional unit members, according to the union. 

After rejecting Boeing’s first offer, SPEEA members said in an ‌internal ⁠survey that their top priority was getting higher general wage increases. 

“We heard you clearly, in your survey responses and comments at Town Hall meetings. We took your words with us back to the table, and they shaped every conversation we had with Boeing executives,” SPEEA’s negotiating team said in a statement. 

The tentative deal “isn’t everything we’d asked for, but it represents a real step forward toward improving our pay and work lives and rebuilding the relationship between Boeing leadership and our union’s members,” the team said. 

The current contract expires October 6. If a deal is not finalized by then, SPEEA members can go on strike. 

SPEEA members are critical to Boeing’s efforts to certify its 737 MAX 10 and 777-9 jets, both of which are years behind schedule. 

The previous offer had 3% general wage increases. Several SPEEA members told Reuters that would nearly guarantee their salaries fall behind inflation. 

The Consumer Price Index, an inflation benchmark, rose 4.5% over the past year for the ​Seattle area, where most SPEEA members work, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in July.

SPEEA has not negotiated a new contract for its Northwest members with the company since 2012. Members approved contract extensions in 2016 and 2020. 

(Reporting by Dan Catchpole in Seattle; Additional reporting by Rhea Rose Abraham; Editing by Kim Coghill and Tom Hogue)