Jobs Returned, Positions Offered Again, Back Pay and Benefits Given

Boeing took another black eye after losing a case for retaliating against a group of 7 pilots working directly for the company.

In the case, pilots represented by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, or SPEEA, alleed that they were fired as punishment for engaging in union actions. The case resulted in all 7 pilots being re-offered their old jobs, in addition to being paid lost wages and benefits. Their jobs were similarly restored to being a part of the Boeing Company, since they had been outsourced to non-union contractors after Boeing gave the bunch the axe.

“I find that Boeing was motivated by anti-union animus and was punishing its (Flight Training Airplane) pilots for their union activity in April 2020. No other rational explanation exists.” said presiding Judge Gerald Etchingham in his National Labor Relations Board order.

“The ruling is a resounding win for our union-represented pilots,” said Ray Goforth, the executive director of SPEEA, IFPTE Local 2001, which represented the Boeing instructor pilots before their work was outsourced to third-party contractors. The union pursued the federal complaint on their behalf.

“Boeing systematically dismantled the pilot training safety system that had served the company and its customers well for decades,” Goforth said. “They stripped the safety system for parts, pocketed the savings, then contracted out the remaining pieces to pretend that no substantive changes had occurred.”

FMI: www.speea.org