Boeing Engineers and Technicians Overwhelmingly Reject Contract Offer and Authorize Strike
Boeing engineers and technicians overwhelmingly rejected the American planemaker's offer for a four-year labor contract, according to union officials on Friday.
The 17,000 members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) also voted decisively to grant their negotiating team the authority to call a strike when their current contract expires on October 6, the union stated.
About 64% of engineers voted against the tentative agreement, while the rejection rate among technicians reached approximately 72%. Currently, no new round of negotiations is scheduled between Boeing and SPEEA, the largest union representing the company's white-collar employees.
Ben Nimmergut, Boeing Vice President and Chief Functional Engineer for Production Engineering, said in a statement: "We are disappointed that our engineers and technical workers rejected our offer. As a result, we have now begun implementing our strike contingency plan and are redirecting the funds we intended to invest in our SPEEA-represented team to prepare for a potential strike."
He added, "We have no choice but to execute our contingency plan. We have a responsibility to our other employees and our customers to build on the progress we have made over the past two years and maintain our momentum."
The Union's Stance
Catherine Durkee, another member of the union's negotiating team, stated that SPEEA members "truly want to have careers, not just jobs, at Boeing."
A work stoppage by SPEEA members would lead to further delays in the certification campaigns for Boeing's 737 MAX 10 and 777-9 aircraft, both of which are already several years behind schedule in their development programs.
A union spokesperson mentioned that the negotiating team plans to survey members to determine what it would take to secure their approval for a four-year contract with Boeing.
Kevin Boyd, a member of the SPEEA negotiating team, noted that the strike authorization vote "provides a great deal of transparency," adding, "The members have strong needs here, and they are prepared to do what it takes to achieve them."
Several union members who voted against the offer cited that the wage increases were insufficient to keep pace with the rising cost of living in the Seattle area and fell short of the raises offered by rival companies to their employees.
Commercial Airplane Production and Offer Details
The rejected offer included inflation-linked wage increases capped at 3%, alongside individual performance-based raises and other unspecified metrics determined by the company.
Several SPEEA members argued that capping inflation-related increases at 3% would almost guarantee their salaries fall behind inflation rates. The Consumer Price Index (CPI), a key measure of inflation, rose by 4.5% over the past year in the Seattle area, where most SPEEA members work, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in July.
Boeing, however, stated that its offer would have represented the largest wage increase for SPEEA members in 40 years.
It is worth noting that SPEEA has not negotiated a new contract for its Northwest members with the company since 2012, as members agreed to contract extensions in 2016 and 2020. The engineers and technicians units negotiate jointly with Boeing but vote separately.
The last strike by SPEEA members occurred in 2000 and lasted for 40 days. In 2024, Boeing's commercial airplane production in the Seattle area ground to a halt when roughly 33,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) went on a seven-week strike.