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SPEEA.jpg
Negotiators for SPEEA get a look at Boeing's second contract offer Tuesday, after the first was rejected last month. Boeing's engineers make an average of about $110,000 a year, and its white-collar unionized technicians make around $80,000. (Dean Rutz/AP photo)

Boeing engineers say company leaders must have 'amnesia'

November 19, 2012 @ 8:28 pm (Updated: 7:45 pm - 11/20/12 )

UPDATE: Ray Goforth, executive director of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), says the union negotiating team is likely to reject the offer. The full membership will vote on it after Thanksgiving.

Negotiators for Boeing's engineers and technical union workers don't expect much from the company when it hands them a second contract offer Tuesday.

"Indications are this offer is only marginally improved from the offer members overwhelmingly rejected last month," according to the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace.

The union's website states 2008 and 2012, SPEEA members "helped to pull the company back from financial collapse due to the 787 outsourcing fiasco. Now that the company is posting record profits, company leadership has developed amnesia" by forgetting all the engineers and tech workers have contributed.

They say while Boeing executives and shareholders are being rewarded, the proposed pay and benefit package they're looking at changes to pensions and health benefits.

Boeing wants to put incoming workers on a 401(k) plan, rather than current pension system SPEEA members have.

SPEEA also reminds its workers "all overtime during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend is voluntary."

After November 25, SPEEA could strike, though union members have not taken a strike vote. Unlike the Boeing Machinists, SPEEA has held only one significant strike, of 40 days, in 2000.

Boeing doesn't want to deal with a strike. The company is trying to meet a record commercial backlog of about 4,000 jets valued at $302 billion.

Boeing's engineers make an average of about $110,000 a year, and its white-collar unionized technicians make around $80,000.

By LINDA THOMAS

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Comments (36)


  • Add A Comment

  • Rick W7PSK wrote...
    The Average is a CROCK
    November 20, 2012 5:52 am
    its pumped up numbers by Boeing.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • DJFavorite wrote...
    SPEEA can thank Obama
    November 20, 2012 6:16 am
    With regards to the healthcare, they can thank Obama for why the company needing to make those changes. And pensions, while are a nice perk, the 401k can be a better deal. SPEEA needs to get into the 21st century and realize that Boeing can't run the business like they did in the 20th century.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Drool wrote...
    DJFavorite
    November 20, 2012 7:50 am
    Boeing's attempts to change the retirement plan and heal care benefits pre-date the Obama administration.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • DJFavorite wrote...
    not the healthcare...
    November 20, 2012 8:18 am
    There are changes that are directly related to the Affordable Health Care Act.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • William Lawn wrote...
    Prove it DJ
    November 20, 2012 11:37 am
    Companies have been scaling back their responsibilities for employee healthcare for many years. Boeing included.

    If you don't know that, you aren't very smart or just partisan to the point of foolishness.

    But often, when it comes to Obama the RWNJ's stoop to foolish.

    Stupid, really.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • DJFavorite wrote...
    Let just say
    November 21, 2012 5:24 am
    Not only is my insurance going to change this coming year (for the first time in ages), my husband's at another company (whose insurance hasn't changed in ages either) is changing this year. WE will be paying more per month, higher deductables... These new plans have to be in place by 2013, or the companies get increased taxes for having these plans.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • William Lawn wrote...
    Yeah, a 401K can be a better deal
    November 20, 2012 10:29 am
    Tell that to 401K investors back in March of 2009.

    Or November of 2001 for that matter.

    And so I don't have to bother with another post.

    AJ, grow up. You are obsessed with me.

    Get a life.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • jstumbo wrote...
    Companies can't afford it anymore...
    November 20, 2012 10:53 am
    The idea of pensions has gone away. Companies cannot continue to afford to pay a pension. It is all about who takes the risk. The company when it is a pension, and the employee when it is a 401K. Why should the company be on the hook to give people money after they have stopped working for the company?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • aircraft engineer wrote...
    OBAMA? You smoking something really RICH, eh?
    November 21, 2012 9:55 am
    401K is a loser unless one contributes the MAX right from the beginning. years ago when i was right out of school, I might have been able to make plans based on a 401K - now it's just an addition to the meager pension and social security. Boeing made some BAD decisions 10 years ago and needed help getting out of the hole they (MANAGEMENT) managed to dig for themselves. Similarly when DRUYAN was "hired" many of us looked at each other and asked "BOEING HIRED HER TO DO WHAT? ARE THEY THAT < INSERT EXPLETIVE> STUPID??"
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • RonJ wrote...
    "I want more,more,more"
    November 20, 2012 7:49 am
    Everybody wants a bigger slice of the pie
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Skykomish2 wrote...
    A bigger piece of the pie....
    November 20, 2012 9:04 am
    Lets not forget that those that we buy from - the grocer, the gas station, the power company, the phone company, etc. - all keep charging their bigger part of the pie. We need more just to keep up...
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Rick W7PSK wrote...
    what Boeing is offering is
    November 20, 2012 9:16 am
    LESS, More cuts, More Medical, and 2% pay raises wont even keep up with inflation.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Ernie in the East wrote...
    always more, more, more
    November 20, 2012 10:03 am
    With these union contracts it's always more, more, more. Your current contract was acceptable a few years ago when you voted to accept it and now it's no longer good?! If in my position (a minister) If I did what these unions are doing, I would be out on my ear (and rightly so). Be glad you have a job, people! Complaining about a job that pays an average of $80,000 to $110,000, something's wrong with this picture. You're living in a state that has higher than the average unemployement and you're complaining about your pay, senseless, really senseless.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • WingNut2 wrote...
    The curren contract is fine
    November 20, 2012 10:28 am
    I think SPEEA would be happy with the current contract, if Boeing were to offer it. Boeing is offering less than the current contract and SPEAA is trying to maintain status-quo in the context of rapidly increasing executive pay and dividends.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • aircraft engineer wrote...
    minister?
    November 21, 2012 10:24 am
    You have a "feel good job" listening to peoples troubles. I suppose you may or may not be affected by inflation (like us working stiffs are) IF Boeing had chosen to retain that old contract, it would have been ACCEPTABLE - what oyu don't realize is that the current contract proposals amount to s SIGNIFICANT set of "take-aways" . Go back to your mythical sky fairy - it needs you
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • It's me! Ha ha! wrote...
    Left wing Parrots complaining about jobs?
    November 20, 2012 10:27 am
    Well that's hilarious!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • William Lawn wrote...
    RWNJ union members complaining about unions
    November 20, 2012 11:27 am
    Well that is hilarious!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Snout wrote...
    Look at the statue in front of the union's offices in Everett.
    November 20, 2012 10:57 am
    Is it of a worker working? Perhaps a worker with his hand out in friendship to compromise? No. It's a "worker" with a picket sign. That says it all.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Rick W7PSK wrote...
    Wrong Union Snout
    November 20, 2012 11:01 am
    thats the IAM not SPEEA
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }