IAM Talks End Late Monday With Announcement Of TA

Responding to a request by The Boeing Company, the union representing 20,300 engineers and technical workers agreed to delay negotiations one day to give the company extra time to complete negotiations and end the strike by the International Association of Machinists (IAM).

The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001, will now start main table negotiations with Boeing at 9 am PDT Wednesday, October 29, at the Doubletree Hotel in SeaTac. The union and Boeing originally planned to start negotiations Tuesday for new three-year contracts. Boeing officials called SPEEA shortly after noon on Monday to request the delay.

"We agreed to this one-time delay with the hope that Boeing will use the time to conclude negotiations with the IAM," said SPEEA Executive Director Ray Goforth. As ANN reported, IAM and Boeing announced Monday night a tentative contract agreement had been reached, with IAM leadership recommending workers approve it to end the now 53-day strike.

Next up for Boeing are the SPEEA talks... which involve two contracts. The first covers 13,390 engineers and a second contract for 6,889 technical workers. While the majority of workers work in the Puget Sound region, the contracts cover some employees in Oregon, Utah and California. Both contracts expire December 1.

Negotiations for 700 engineers at Boeing Wichita remain scheduled to start November 13. The Wichita contract expires December 5.

SPEEA negotiation teams are prepared for difficult talks. In May, union leaders started advising members to prepare for a possible strike. SPEEA-represented Boeing employees have striked just twice since organizing in 1946.

The first was a one-day strike January 19, 1993. The second was a 40-day strike that stopped deliveries, customer service, engineering and technical work at Boeing from February 9 to March 20, 2000.

FMI: www.speea.com, www.boeing.com