Rejection Of Terms Expected
The union, representing
technical and professional workers at The Boeing Company's plant in
Wichita (KS), will send the latest contract offer to members with a
strong recommendation to reject. The recommendation came from the
WTPU Negotiations Team and was followed by a unanimous vote to
support the recommendation to reject from their governing
council.
"This contract offer is an insult to the Boeing employees in
Wichita," said Bob Brewer, chief spokesman for The Society of
Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, (SPEEA), IFPTE
Local 2001. "The company is in a better position today than they
have been in two years. The benefit take-a-ways and the refusal of
the EIP (Employee Incentive Plan) show that Boeing has no intention
of treating these employees with dignity and respect."
The union informed Boeing negotiators last night that the
contract offer would be lifted from the negotiations table
Wednesday morning. SPEEA negotiators were forced to issue their
recommendations early after Boeing posted the contract offer on the
company website and issued their own internal announcement. The
union is holding an all-employee meeting at 5 p.m., Thursday, March
11, at Southeast Senior High School, 903 S. Edgemoor Street, to
present the contract offer and answer questions about the
recommendation.
SPEEA and Boeing opened talks Feb. 17 for a new contract for the
3,400-employee Wichita Technical and Professional Unit (WTPU). The
employees have been working under a contract extension since Feb.
19. Members will vote to accept or reject the three-year contract
offer by mail, as predetermined by SPEEA's Midwest Council. Voting
packages will be mailed next week.
Boeing's latest offer
contains significant benefit take-a-ways and only modest wage and
salary increases, according to union leaders. Under the offer,
employees would see monthly medical premiums jump by 500 percent -
from $30 to $150. Salary increases come from wage pools of 3.5
percent in year one and 3 percent in years two and three of the
contract. Individual employees are only guaranteed $750 in year
one, $500 in year two and nothing in year three.
Boeing's offer includes a 3 percent bonus, but only if the
agreement is ratified by members by March 17 -- a deadline that is
impossible to meet with a mail-in ballot. The bonus itself leaves
WTPU employees about 20 percent behind what non-union employees
received from the EIP in the past three years.
SPEEA Negotiation Team Chairman Steve Smith called Boeing's
offer a disservice to Boeing Wichita employees.
"This contract discounts the contribution employees make to
Boeing," Smith said. "It's important that employees have the
opportunity to have their say on this offer and show the company
what they think."
The WTPU Negotiations Team met with SPEEA's WTPU and Midwest
councils Tuesday evening to explain the offer. The councils
reaffirmed the Negotiations Team's recommendation to reject. Lloyd
Bonham, chair of the SPEEA bargaining unit agreed, saying
represented employees will be shocked to learn benefit take-a-ways
will have them paying 20 percent of their medical costs by year
three.
"Everyone is aware that
we may have to pay a little more for medical coverage, but this is
a blatant attempt to shift the burden onto employees," Bonham
said.
Organized in 2000, the WTPU includes 3,400 professional and
technical workers at the Wichita Boeing plant. Employees reverified
the bargaining unit in a close election in February. Boeing
campaigned strongly against the union with a dedicated website,
mandatory meetings for employees and curtailing union officials'
access to the workplace.
The low-ball contract offer is a continuation of the company's
attempt to end union representation for the technical and
professional employees at the Wichita plant, according to Charles
Bofferding, executive director of SPEEA-IFPTE.
"Boeing's top leaders continue to allow, if not insist, that
Boeing attack its own employees," Bofferding said. "This is wrong.
It is undermining morale and should be a concern for anyone
interested in the future of Boeing -- employees, customers and
shareholders.