Boeing sends contract offer to engineers union; deal endorsed by negotiators

By Dan Catchpole

SEATTLE, July 30 (Reuters) – Boeing said on Thursday it had sent a contract offer to the union representing roughly 17,000 engineers and technical workers in its commercial airplane division. 

The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace’s negotiating team endorsed the deal, according to a post on the union’s website.

No details of the proposed contract were immediately available. 

• The SPEEA negotiating team said the proposal “offers real and meaningful value to the membership, delivers real positive change to work/life balance and delivers on the membership’s priorities.”

• Union officials for the engineers and technicians bargaining units will review the terms and make a recommendation to members next week.

• The current SPEEA contract expires on October 6.

• A strike could further delay certification campaigns for Boeing’s 737 MAX 10 – the largest variant of its single-aisle jet – and the 777-9, its ​largest jetliner. The company is already years behind schedule on certification, which ​is engineering-intensive work.

• Boeing has had three major union contract negotiations in as many years. The previous two, covering the planemaker’s commercial ⁠aircraft workers and a separate bargaining unit of defense workers, both represented by ​the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, ended after extended strikes.

• In January, Boeing reached a contract with roughly 1,600 SPEEA members at the former Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kansas. The contract included a $6,000 ratification bonus, annual wage increases, improvements to medical and retirement plans, and an additional six days off a year.

(Reporting by Dan Catchpole in Seattle; Editing by Jamie Freed)