Thousands of SPEEA Prof and Tech members completed the Negotiation Prep Committee (NPC) initial survey which closed March 21.

The NPC will use the information from the survey to help define upcoming surveys regarding contract issues and priorities. The survey results will only be shared internally with the NPC committee members and committee staff focals.

All the surveys will help inform the Prof and Tech Negotiation Teams, which will be elected next year. Contracts for both the Professional Unit and Technical Unit expire on Oct. 6, 2026.

About NPC

NPC is a group of SPEEA members working with staff to set the stage for the Prof and Tech Negotiation Teams. The committee members work on gathering members’ input and raising awareness about the issues and the negotiation process.

All current Prof and Tech SPEEA members can attend the NPC meetings on the second Monday of every month, with in-person and virtual options. Get full voting privileges after attending three meetings as a guest.

The Washington state Senate on Friday approved a bill that would allow striking workers to get unemployment insurance. The vote was 28 to 21.

Senate Bill 5041 will now move to the state House of Representatives, which last year approved a similar bill.

You can check how your state Senator voted by clicking here. (Under “Bill History,” scroll to the bottom and select “View Roll Calls.”

“Thanks to all the SPEEA members who emailed or called their Senators, urging them to support this bill,” said SPEEA Legislative Director Brandon Anderson. “Without the energy and action of rank-and-file SPEEA members, this win wouldn’t have been possible.”

With the bill now going to the House, expect to be called on again to help out, he added. "Friday’s vote is a huge step forward, but our work is not yet done."

The IFPTE family is mourning the loss of the 67 passengers, crew, and military personnel who perished in the tragic collision of Flight 5342 and a Blackhawk helicopter on Wednesday night at the Washington National Airport. The devastating accident impacted families and communities across the globe, including Wichita, Kansas and Washington, DC where IFPTE members live and work.

IFPTE SPEEA-Area Vice Presiden and SPEEA Council Chair, Matthew Joyce, who is lifetime resident of Wichita and is employed as an engineer by Spirit Aerosystems there provided the following condolences: “Our SPEEA and IFPTE community here in Wichita sends our deepest condolences to the families of all of those who lost life in this tragic accident. As a Union, IFPTE and SPEEA are proud that our members play a key role in the manufacturing of aircraft and understand that those who perished on this flight are our Union Siblings who work in our same industry, whether they be the pilots, the flight attendants, athletes, the flying public and our fellow citizens. We offer our deepest condolences to all of their families.”

SPEEA President and IFPTE SPEEA-Area Vice President, John Dimas, also commented: “This is a tragic loss of life for the families, and for our Union and aviation communities. SPEEA and IFPTE grieve for those who perished, honor their lives, and offer our deepest sympathies to their families.”

Union members report Boeing sending more SPEEA work overseas

By Rich Plunkett
SPEEA Director of Strategic Development

On Oct. 11, 2024, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg released a message to employees announcing a reduction in force as part of his vision for “Positioning for the Future.”

His announcement said a 10% reduction in employment was necessary to achieve business goals, including to “ensure we stay competitive” and to “focus our resources on performing and innovating in the areas that are core to who we are, rather than spreading ourselves across too many efforts.

Nowhere in the message was there mention of Boeing having an excess of employees for the backlog of work at hand.

This edict from the new CEO appears to have flowed down to working-level managers with little to no resistance along the way. The announcement left line managers scrambling to figure out how to accomplish the work assigned to their teams with fewer people.

Adding to the chaos, this reduction in force (or RIF) included a “non-working RIF” component that our union had not seen before at Boeing.

Instead of SPEEA-represented engineers and technical workers who were facing layoffs having 60 days to finish out their projects and assignments or hand them off to colleagues, laid-off workers were told within days to turn in their Boeing-issued equipment, and they had their internal communications tools severed. Then they were shoved out the door.

This has resulted in scores of laid-off SPEEA members calling our union halls asking for advice on who they could inform about the status of the work they were doing for Boeing, including updating managers on what tasks had been finished and which were still in progress.

It almost seems like the SPEEA members who are leaving Boeing care more about the work they’d been assigned to do than the company does itself.

Exploiting potential loopholes

In addition, we’ve received reports from SPEEA members that suggest some Boeing managers are attempting to exploit what they see as loopholes in the SPEEA contracts.

In some instances, Boeing managers are attempting to keep laid-off SPEEA members on the job by shuffling people between accounting columns.

Some SPEEA-represented employees facing layoff have been told that they could continue to perform their work at Boeing – albeit for lesser pay. They’ve been told to apply for work with a third-party employment contractor, which has been providing workers to Boeing under a Purchased Service contract. This third-party contractor then would send the laid-off SPEEA member back to Boeing.

This contractor is a multi-national, technology outsourcing corporation based in India that is largely dependent upon H-1B visas.

Also, a handful of managers have tried to use the layoffs as an opportunity to purge their ranks of employees who have asked too many questions – even when those employees are members of Boeing’s elite cadre of engineers in the Boeing Technical Fellowship program.

Arbitration seems likely

SPEEA is currently investigating some of these layoffs as likely violations of our union’s contracts with Boeing. We’ve alerted Boeing’s Labor Relations leaders to these problems. Based on the responses we’ve received; it appears likely our union will have to go to arbitration to get these contract violations overturned.

While the outcome of any arbitration is at least six to 12 months away, SPEEA-represented Boeing workers are expressing sincere fear in the workplace NOW. They believe if they speak up in any meaningful way about a quality or safety issue, they will be laid off, too.
This, obviously, is antithetical to building a robust safety culture at Boeing.

Finally, some of the work that was being performed by SPEEA members who are now facing layoffs is being sent to Boeing facilities outside the United States – the Boeing India Engineering & Technology Center in particular – where Boeing employees earn significantly less than their American counterparts.

These overseas work transfers should trigger the protocols covered in Letter of Understanding 28, “Relating to Work Movement” in SPEEA’s contracts.

However, Boeing Labor Relations leaders say they are “not aware” of any such work movement, despite a growing body of reports documenting the transfers. This, too, seems like a case that will require an arbitration ruling to correct a contract violation.
In the meantime, Boeing employees are receiving the clear message that cheaper labor in the name of cost reductions is far more real than any safety culture improvements proclaimed by executives.