Our Negotiation Teams resumed contract talks with Boeing on Monday, starting with a presentation on Boeing’s vision for engineering and technical excellence.
Boeing Vice President of Engineering Functions Ben Nimmergut told our team that Boeing’s “recovery and long-term success” is dependent upon building and sustaining a high-quality engineering and technical workforce. To do that, he said, "We must seek that we’re the most-sought-after place to work.”
Our team pressed the Boeing executives hard on the ways those broad statements about engineering excellence translate into specific actions for the engineers and technical workers our union represents. Among the specifics, our team dug for details about Boeing’s plans for the internal development of engineering and technical skills, about how the goals would apply to questions of work/life balance, and how they factor into decisions about which work gets done by SPEEA-represented professionals and which gets outsourced.
“All these things are interconnected,” said Dan Nowlin, an Everett tool and equipment engineering specialist who is part of the Tech unit negotiation team. “We need to understand how Boeing’s desire for technical excellence translates into real-world working conditions for our union members before we can put together enforceable contract language.”
Also Monday, our team agreed to form two subcommittees to work with the Boeing team on questions of workforce maintenance and development and on work/life balance. The subcommittees are expected to meet for the first time on Tuesday.
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