SPEEA leader says contract deal likely Thursday

A top official of Boeing's white-collar union said it is likely to reach an agreement with management Thursday on a contract offer to the company's engineers and technical staff.

"We're pretty close," said Cynthia Cole, president of the Society for Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), just before she headed back into another session of talks late Wednesday. "We see a lot of good things in what we are looking at."

With the agreement still not finalized, SPEEA disclosed few details of the pending deal. But in a statement Wednesday evening, the union did reveal that negotiators agreed to extend the contract to four years, instead of the usual three.

Because the Machinists union also extended its recently ratified contract to four years, that shift will put the SPEEA contract back in synch with the Machinists schedule. Once agreement is reached, the new SPEEA contract will expire on Oct. 6, 2012.

The union statement also cautioned that "several major issues remain unresolved and possible stumbling blocks." Among the issues where some details remain to be finalized it listed wage increases, medical benefit costs and retirement issues.

The union represents about 20,000 engineers and technical staff — mostly in the Puget Sound region, with a few hundred in Oregon, Utah and California — who design, engineer and integrate new aircraft and military systems.

Boeing engineers earn on average almost $89,000 a year in base salary, and technical staff average about $67,000, according to SPEEA. Overtime and incentive pay increase those averages to $108,000 and $82,000, respectively, according to Boeing.

If the expected deal is reached, SPEEA members will vote on the offer by mail in time to have a new contract in place by Dec. 1.

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