Step 3 grievance

At Thursday’s Northwest Council meeting, CR’s learned how SPEEA corrected a Boeing error that resulted in Boeing terminating SPEEA-represented interns at the end of their internship instead of allowing them to move to an Educational Leave Of Absence (ELOA).

The success is the result of a grievance filed by SPEEA. Its resolution restores the option of returning to an ELOA, remaining a Boeing employee and keeping the corresponding benefits provided by the SPEEA collective bargaining agreements.

SPEEA is contacting interns and working with the company to inform interns of this option. If you know of an intern who was incorrectly terminated, have them contact Boeing Worklife. They can also contact SPEEA.

A copy of the Step 3 Grievance along with instructions to help SPEEA-represented interns is available for download:

Step 3 Grievance
Termination in Violation of Just Cause SPEEA/Boeing
Technical Collective Bargaining Agreement

Instructions for Interns

SEATTLE – The Boeing Company and SPEEA have agreed to settle a recent Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge SPEEA filed in May. The agreement required a posting that employees recently received, and Boeing must furnish the data requested by SPEEA that led to the charge in the first place.

A year ago, SPEEA requested the data which is relevant to contract administration. After a lengthy delay, misleading and incomplete data, SPEEA filed a grievance and filed the ULP with Region 19 of the National Labor Relations Board. The arbitration on the matter is currently scheduled for this fall.

“Our grievance states Boeing has expanded the use of Contract Labor without adhering to the required process by falsely labeling it as Purchased Services,” said Rich Plunkett, SPEEA director of strategic development. He discussed the ULP in a May 3 SPEEA News article.

“In our investigation, it became apparent local management has a perverse incentive to use Purchased Services over Contract Labor. Organizations are assessed a ‘headcount tax’ for each Boeing employee AND each contractor reporting to that same group. On the other hand, this tax is not levied for individuals coded as Purchased Services,” he said.

“It is unclear how this financial sleight of hand benefits Boeing’s bottom line but is indicative of the sub-optimizing, cost-cutting culture of Boeing today,” he said. “We need the data to understand the full scope of the situation.”

He also pointed out “this clandestine use of non-Boeing personnel is also frequently out of sight of the skill teams – the management group responsible for managing the necessary resident expertise for current and future work.”

In SPEEA contracts

SPEEA contracts allow for non-Boeing personnel to perform bargaining unit work on site, but also spell out the associated conditions, definitions and limitations.

Article 1 and Article 22 in the Professional (engineering) and Technical contracts spell out who is represented by SPEEA by virtue of the work performed.

Article 9 in both contracts contains the details relating to non-Boeing labor and the normal reporting requirements. This data is used for forecasting discussions in concert with Article 9 and Letters of Understanding (LOU) 6, 8, 9, 21 and 28.

About non-Boeing labor

Contract Labor – This is technical or engineering personnel supplied to Boeing through a third-party in the business of recruiting and supplying contracted staff to other companies. Contract personnel typically perform Boeing work on Boeing premises and are supervised by Boeing managers.

Purchased Services – This is non-Boeing labor wherein specialized engineering or technical services obtained from an outside company specifically to be used by or incorporated into a product or service. Generally, Purchased Services are contracted to complete defined statements of work.

The application, notification and protections afforded SPEEA members is significantly different for these two categories of non-Boeing labor.

For more information, contact your Council Rep or local SPEEA office. SPEEA has begun a few lunchtime meetings in areas where these individuals are resident in order to better hone our case.

WICHITA - Spirit AeroSystems salary increases will be posted after Aug. 2 and will be backdated to July 5. Raises and applicable back pay will appear in the Aug. 22 paycheck.

The backdating ensures employees receive all the appropriate pay for any increases to their base salary they may receive and also meets SPEEA contractual requirements.

SPEEA staff will monitor the 2019 salary exercise to ensure that contractual minimums were applied in accordance with the Wichita Engineering Unit (WEU) and Wichita Technical and Professional Unit (WTPU) collective bargaining agreements.

Managers will start distributing salary planning notifications the week of Aug. 5.