Company And Union Stall On Proposals

Even as Boeing struggles to bring its commercial aircraft production back up to speed after a 57-day strike by machinists, it faces another expiring contract with members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace.

A few days ago, the word was a settlement was near. Now, that appears to have been overly optimistic.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer cites a union source in reporting that despite a more active role by a federal mediator, the talks between Boeing and SPEEA hit turbulence Tuesday over incomplete responses from the company to union proposals.

The company's statement said all the non-economic issues have been resolved.

"Today Boeing and SPEEA negotiators reached a significant milestone in an afternoon main-table session," Boeing said. "Building on yesterday's accomplishments, we reached a tentative agreement on employment stabilization, which resolves the last noneconomic issue in these negotiations. We also continued discussions in other areas of the contracts, including vacation, sick leave and holidays."

However, union representatives don't agree. "We've made progress. However, there is still work to do," said SPEEA Executive Director Ray Goforth, adding the two sides haven't come to terms yet on medical benefits, pensions and compensation.

"In addition, Boeing continues to push for removal of Utah engineers from the professional contract," SPEEA said.

There are two SPEEA contracts at play, affecting a total of about 21,000 workers. Both expire December 1. While most affected workers are employed in the Puget Sound area, some work in Oregon, Utah and California. One acknowledged sticking point is Boeing's position that its employees in Utah should not be included in a new contract.

Boeing earlier said it would make its best and final offer to the union by Tuesday. That's now slipped to the end of this week, and even that prediction doesn't sound confident. The company was supposed to be starting talks today with 700 engineers based in Wichita, who have a contract which expires December 5. Those talks have now been pushed off to next week.

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