'Best And Final' Contract Shot Down Twice Before

It's done... but no one seems very happy. On Thursday, a negotiating team with the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) accepted the latest contract offer from Boeing, after grudgingly conceding victory to the planemaker.

As ANN reported, workers at Boeing's Wichita Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) rejected a tentative contract agreement on March 5, for the second time in the latest round of negotiations. While voting down the deal, workers also rejected an authorization to strike the company... likely realizing current economic conditions make this no time to threaten to strike a company that's already laid off workers this year.

That failure to authorize a strike also shot down any leverage the union had to negotiate a deal, however... and gave Boeing no incentive to move from its "best and final offer," despite the previous rejections.

The tone of SPEEA's announcement to its membership indicates the decision to accept the deal was painful, but necessary.

"Boeing negotiators and management did not take today's Main Table talks as an opportunity to adjust the company's offer and live up to their words of providing a "fair and competitive" offer to the professional engineers that are essential to Wichita IDS," the union posted on its Web site Thursday.

"With no desire from Boeing to move from its hardliner stance on contractual issues today, your WEU team made the difficult decision to accept the current offer."

The agreement brings to end negotiations that started in November.

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