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.

FMI: www.speea.org