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June 20, 2011
WTPU Main Table negotiations begin

WICHITA - Main Table negotiations for the Wichita Technical and Professional Unit (WTPU) at Spirit AeroSystems started Monday (June 20) with a press conference with local media.

SPEEA-IFPTE Local 2001 Midwest Director Bob Brewer and Spirit Director of Labor Relations Adam Pogue gave opening remarks reiterating both teams’ desire to come to an agreement that meets both Spirit’s business interests and the economic needs of our coworkers and their families.

During the morning negotiation session, Spirit Controller and Treasurer Steve Sharp gave a presentation, reviewing the company’s financial performance over the past six years and the challenges going forward. As has been discussed during Spirit’s quarterly investor conference calls, improving cash flow and margins are essential to enhancing our business prospects and funding the investments necessary to grow our company.

The afternoon was dedicated to working the last few workforce issues that were carried over from the subcommittee negotiations. The teams are attempting to narrow down the gaps remaining on subjects such as retentions and redeployment.

Tuesday’s session should start the economic phase of negotiations. The SPEEA team anticipates getting its first look at the direction Spirit wishes to go with wages, benefits, and pension.

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June 22, 2011

WTPU Main Table negotiations – Day Two

The Wichita Technical and Professional Unit (WTPU) negotiations with Spirit AeroSystems continued Tuesday (June 21), returning to the table in an attempt to workthe outstanding Workforce issues.

They reached tentative agreement on most non-economic contract sections, but a few remain open as they struggle to come to an appropriate balance between the company's desire for "flexibility" and SPEEA's need to protect coworkers from arbitrary actions.

The afternoon session was dedicated to a presentation from Spirit's outside Mercer consultant regarding the company's compensation philosophy.

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July 5, 2011

WTPU Main Table negotiations – Day Four

Negotiations reconvened Tuesday (July 5) with Spirit management presenting us an initial contract proposal, including economic language. The proposal includes a long-term contract duration, annual selective salary wage pools, a risk-based incentive plan, and medical coverage similar to that received by all other Spirit AeroSystems employees.

Our SPEEA Wichita Technical and Professional Unit (WTPU) team spent the remainder of the day and the early evening reviewing the company's proposal. We then prepared and presented a counter-proposal to end the day's session.

Negotiations reconvene Wednesday, when we expect a follow-up from the company.

Recognizing the complexity of the negotiations, both sides agreed to extend the existing contract to July 25.

July 8, 2011

WTPU Main Table negotiations – Day Seven
During the past week, the Wichita Technical and Professional Unit (WTPU) Negotiation Team has met late into the night, working with the company to come to an agreement on Spirit AeroSystem's compensation strategy. A better understanding of the data was reached and alternatives are being discussed.

Due to scheduling conflicts on the WTPU team – Bob Brewer, SPEEA Midwest director, will be giving deposition testimony for our "retirement" lawsuit – negotiations will resume no earlier than the middle of next week.

As announced earlier, our contract has been extended to July 25, and will be extended further as necessary, as we continue to search for a path to mutual agreement and success.

July 19, 2011

WTPU Negotiations – ‘Final Offer’

The Wichita Technical and Professional Unit (WTPU) Negotiation Team received Spirit AeroSystems’ “final offer” from their negotiators on July 18.

Per SPEEA’s governing documents, the team presented the offer and its recommendation to the WTPU Council Representatives. Following the presentation and discussion, the Council Representatives agreed with the Negotiation Team and both have unanimously recommended the membership reject this insulting offer.

The team went in to these negotiations looking to come to a reasonable agreement that would protect what our coworkers told us was important: wages, medical benefits, and pension. The company was unable or unwilling to meet the minimums necessary to maintain most of the “market based” packages they said they wished to implement.

The Council Representatives will schedule lunchtime meetings during the next week, where the Negotiation Team will review the contract offer and respond to questions. All employees represented by the WTPU are welcome to attend. Contact your Council Rep for your meeting time.

A contract vote is scheduled for dues-paying SPEEA WTPU members on the afternoon of Thursday, July 28. Meeting details will be announced when available.

July 26, 2011

WTPU contract vote - Thursday, July 28

There have been several questions raised during lunchtime meetings about the voting process.

When and where will we vote?
Voting is at the Mary Jane Teall Theater at Century II on Thursday, July 28. Doors open at 4 p.m., the meeting will start at 5 p.m., and the ballot boxes will close at the conclusion of the meeting.

If you are unable to attend the meeting due to vacation, travel, or other commitments, you may be able to vote absentee. Contact SPEEA Midwest Teller Sandie West (sandra.j.west@spiritaero.com or call 526-6259) to make arrangements.

Who can vote?
Voting is only for dues-paying members represented by the WTPU. If you currently are not a member of the WTPU and would like to vote, you can sign a membership card at Century II prior to Thursday's meeting. Photo identification will be required.

If we reject the contract will we have to strike? If we don't
vote to strike, will we have to accept the contract by default?
The Negotiation Team does not plan to request a strike vote at this time. We are voting on the offer only. We believe that an overwhelming rejection of the contract will be sufficient to bring the company back to the bargaining table.

When will the votes be counted?
The ballots will be counted immediately after the meeting Thursday, July 28. The results will then be announced at www.speea.org and the local news at 10 p.m.

WTPU contract negotiations

· WTPU 2011 contract rejection recommendation - .pdf format

· Contract offer economic impact calculator - excel format

· WTPU guide to the redline- .pdf format

· Spirit AeroSystems contract offer - redlined - .pdf format

WICHITA, KS – Faced with a contract offer that sought large concessions from employees, stagnated wages for a decade and ignored proven methods for harnessing medical costs, technical and professional workers at Spirit AeroSystems today told management they must do better by voting 96.5% to reject the offer.

Voting at an all-member meeting this afternoon (July 28) at Century II, aerospace employees in the Wichita Technical and Professional Unit (WTPU) of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001, voted 684 to reject and 25 to accept the offer by Spirit management. It was the largest defeat of a contract offer in SPEEA history at Spirit.

"This overwhelming rejection should convince Spirit that more work needs to be done in improving their offer," said Bill Hartig, chair of the WTPU negotiation team.

The union's negotiation team and governing council each recommended members reject Spirit's offer for a new 9.5-year contract. Employees have been working under a contract extension since July 11. That extension officially expired Monday (July 25).

Negotiations for a new contract for the 2,300 union represented employees started in May. Talks ended July 19 when Spirit abruptly delivered its offer and left negotiations. Despite union proposals that would have saved Spirit money and provided incentives to employees, the company's offer called for doubling medical premiums, expanding Spirit's ability to keep temporary contract workers instead of recalling employees from layoff and would have locked wages at below-market levels for the duration of the agreement.

With today's overwhelming rejection and union membership increasing, SPEEA expects negotiations to resume and is hopeful Spirit will be ready to negotiate. Today's vote did not include a vote on strike authorization.

"The SPEEA negotiations team worked hard to craft a proposal that would meet Spirit's stated desires for a long-term contract with market-based compensation and protections for our team going forward," said Hartig. "We are ready to get back to the negotiations table and come to the fair and equitable resolution that our members deserve and the company desires."

A local of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), SPEEA represents 24,600 aerospace professionals at Boeing, Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Triumph Composite Systems, Inc., in Spokane, Wash., and BAE Systems, Inc., in Irving, Texas.

August 1, 2011

96.5% reject Spirit contract offer

Ignoring warnings, Spirit pushed offer to a vote believing employees would easily vote to accept

The root cause of this lopsided vote was a miscalculation by the Spirit management negotiating team. As the Spirit spokesperson explained to the media after the vote, the results caught Spirit management by complete surprise. Spirit expected a vote approving their unilateral contract offer.

During Main Table negotiations prior to the vote, the SPEEA Negotiating Team repeatedly and persistently explained the profound deficiencies contained in the management offer. These discussions led to some improvements (ex. management's proposal to eliminate overtime pay was eventually withdrawn). However, multiple cost-savings proposals – including proof of their effectiveness – presented by SPEEA were dismissed by management without serious consideration.

Moreover, Spirit negotiators insisted that whole swaths of compensation, benefits, and layoff protections should be placed at management's discretion.

"What management described as the need for "flexibility" was really a power grab for 'unilateral authority' said SPEEA executive director Ray Goforth. "From our perspective, it was nonsensical for Spirit management to insist that we trust promises that they refused to put in writing."

In these discussions, Spirit negotiators repeatedly and continually insisted they understood the needs and concerns of union members better than the SPEEA Negotiation Team. Spirit negotiators confidently predicted that employees would embrace the contract offer even though it eliminated most meaningful protections and instead substituted management discretion.

"The management proposal was based upon the philosophical assertion that employees don't really want or need contract protections," Goforth said. "Spirit negotiators said employees should – and can – rely upon the benevolence of management."

Blindly confident of their position and ignoring SPEEA words of caution, Spirit negotiators delivered their offer on July 19 and then abruptly walked out of negotiations. The action triggered a contract vote that tested these two competing visions.

Going Forward

Spirit management has not responded to any communications from SPEEA since being informed of the vote results shortly after 7 p.m. on Thursday evening.

However, while ignoring the employees' union, Spirit has spoken to the news media and rebuffed the idea of resuming negotiations. Media reports and company actions indicate Spirit management is actively considering the option of simply ignoring the vote and implementing their contract offer.

"The tragic irony of this lays in the preamble to the management contract proposal which is full of happy talk about having a collaborative and cooperative relationship with their workforce," said Goforth. "Management's first reaction to a disagreement with the workforce is to hunker down with the lawyers to explore ways to simply impose their will. That strips the mask off the happy talk and exposes what is truly at stake here."

SPEEA is hopeful that productive negotiations can resume soon. We see great opportunities here for mutual success that will position Spirit to dominate the large structures segment of the aerospace economy. SPEEA is committed to making such a deal happen.

"The SPEEA negotiations team worked hard to craft a proposal that would meet Spirit's stated desires for a long-term contract with market-based compensation and protections for our team going forward," said Bill Hartig, chair of the WTPU negotiation team. "We are ready to get back to the negotiations table and come to the fair and equitable resolution that our members deserve and the company desires."

Despite a near unanimous (96.5%) rejection vote of management’s contract offer to technical and professional employees, Spirit is publicly flirting with the idea of simply ignoring the vote and finding a legal loophole that allows implementing their discredited offer.

Two key points regarding Spirit negotiations:

• Our lawyers are poised to fight any attempt to implement the company’s offer.

• The surest way to bring the company back to the bargaining table is to increase the number of employees who are full union members.

In the past, Spirit has taken the position that employees who are not union members either don’t care about their employment contract or support management’s position. Company statements after last week’s vote show those attitudes still prevail: “Since only about 700 voted, nearly 60% were not heard from … the rejection vote sends a message, but there can be widely held opinions on what the message was.”  


We know that every employee in the WTPU cares about the future of Spirit. We care about our aerospace careers and deeply about how our families will fare during the next decade. We certainly know the vote to reject management’s inadequate contract offer voiced the opinion of the vast majority of employees.


Now, more than ever, Membership Matters Most!  Join or sign up a co-worker TODAY.  Show Spirit management that when it comes to our employment contract, we speak with one voice.

August 24, 2011 - New Update
WTPU negotiations reconvene

Main Table negotiations to secure a new contract for the more than 2,30 0employees in the Wichita Technical and Professional Unit (WTPU) at Spirit AeroSystems resume today (Thursday, Aug. 25).

This is the first negotiation session since 96.5% of the members rejected the initial Spirit contract offer. A mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) is attending today's session to observe negotiations.

Spirit agreed to our suggestion to have a mediator attend the session to gain a full understanding of the issues and each party's positions. This will allow the mediator to step in if necessary as talks move forward.

Information updates

Download the flier explaining SPEEA's proposal to save Spirit money: HealthCare Auditing

Watch the video about Spirit's contract offer to employees: Spirit's first contract offer

August 25, 2011

The WTPU Negotiation Team met with Spirit AeroSystem negotiators Thursday (Aug. 25) and passed our counterproposal to the company. A federal mediator was present to observe the session.

The teams agreed to meet at noon, Friday (Aug. 26), to receive a response from Spirit and continue work on a new contract for more than 2,300 employees in the Wichita Technical and Professional Unit (WTPU).