Weekly interest and loan rates | Northwest stock contest 2004 Tax tips | Consumer affairs | Home values

Boeing Wichita workers back representation by SPEEA union

By Dominic Gates
Seattle Times aerospace reporter

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Related stories Former Boeing plant in Spokane faces layoffs

When the votes were counted last night inside a plant auditorium, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) won by a margin that was only a single vote different from a count four years ago.

Voting 1,577 to 1,513 — a majority of 64 — members of the larger of two SPEEA bargaining units in Wichita recertified the union as their representative.

In 2000, a union drive to create the bargaining unit succeeded by 65 votes.

A loss would have chipped away at SPEEA's pre-eminent position representing Boeing white-collar workers and cost the union some half-million dollars in dues annually.

"I'm elated. Boeing employees made a critical career decision today," SPEAA's Midwest director, Bob Brewer, said in a statement.

But SPEAA Executive Director Charles Bofferding complained of "a negative divisive campaign" run by Boeing.

"We're very disappointed with the campaign the company ran," he said. "We intend to find ways to hold them accountable."

The SPEEA victory is a disappointment for Boeing, which had tried hard to sway employees to reject the union.

"We are prepared to continue working with SPEAA," said Boeing spokesman Fred Solis, citing major new programs looming, the 7E7 and the 767 Air Force tankers. "We're looking forward."

The SPEEA contract covers 3,440 technical professionals in the Wichita bargaining unit. Fewer than 1,500, about 43 percent, are dues-paying union members, but all members of the unit could vote for or against the union.
 
A separate SPEEA bargaining unit covering 1,400 Boeing Wichita engineers was not involved in the vote.

The vote had been hard to predict because about 400 reclassified employees became part of the bargaining unit since the vote in 2000.

The move to oust the union began last year within that group, when some began to gather signatures necessary to hold a vote..

Both SPEEA and Boeing took the struggle seriously.

Tuesday, Boeing managers made presentations to employees, arguing that the company would be better off if it could deal directly with employees.

Bofferding said he was incensed that a company video portrayed unions as a barrier to teamwork and claimed that all contract negotiations had to be adversarial.

The vote took place less than three weeks after a story in The Seattle Times disclosed Boeing is considering a sale of the entire commercial-airplane side of the Wichita plant.

SPEEA's Brewer said the possibility of a sale became a factor in deciding the vote in the union's favor.

But though he expressed confidence in the outcome, Brewer admitted that uncertainty was stressful.

"My stomach is in knots," he said, just before the polls closed.

Negotiations between the union and Boeing on a new contract will take place Tuesday. SPEEA had suspended talks pending the vote.

Dominic Gates: 206-464-2963 or dgates@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company