NLRB Says Planemaker Violated Labor Laws During SPEEA Negotiations

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found The Boeing Company violated labor law and is ordering it to provide wage rates, regional salary information and productivity data from various company locations to the union representing engineers and technical workers, according to a SPEEA news release. The order further instructs Boeing to provide notice of the ruling to all the employees whose collective bargaining rights were violated.

Issued July 31 from the NLRB national office, the order stemmed from an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge filed during 2012 contract talks by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001. Issued by Administrative Law Judge Dickie Montemayor, the order said SPEEA’s formal data request during negotiations sought relevant information because of statements made by Boeing Vice President of Engineering Mike Delaney at the negotiation table and to the news media.

“The information sought clearly had a bearing on the bargaining process,” Montemayor wrote. The company’s “failure to provide requested information undermined and tainted the bargaining process.”

“The judge’s ruling is a complete repudiation of every argument Boeing proffered,” said SPEEA Executive Director Ray Goforth. “The long and difficult negotiations we had in 2012-2013 were a direct result of Boeing engaging in illegal intimidation of employees in the workplace and these illegal tactics at the bargaining table.”

In May, Boeing was found guilty of illegally intimidating SPEEA members through the use of surveillance during the same contract negotiations.

“This pattern of disdain towards the workforce and the laws that protect those workers should worry everyone who is a stakeholder in The Boeing Company,” Goforth said. “This lawless behavior is not helpful.”

A hearing on the charge was held in February, 2014, more than one year after the original filing and when new contracts between Boeing and SPEEA were approved by union members.

One notable defense Boeing made at the hearing was to describe a news article by Bloomberg News as “inaccurate and unreliable.” In rejecting this argument, the judge noted that Boeing only made that assertion before him but never sought a retraction or correction from Bloomberg at the time it was published.

FMI: www.speea.org