With the date for your official switch to SPEEA representation on Dec. 14, we encourage you to stay informed about our current contract negotiations with The Boeing Company. These negotiations will determine the contracts for engineers and technical workers in the SPEEA Professional and Technical bargaining units.

Update for engineers and technical workers

Boeing and SPEEA representatives have been working to finalize the list of individuals covered by the SPEEA contracts.  Management will change their HR system to indicate your coverage under the contracts effective Friday, Dec. 14.  The “make whole” award calculation will still be calculated based upon when you SHOULD have become SPEEA represented.   

We will be scheduling lunchtime meetings at EAFB and Palmdale the week of Dec. 10 to answer questions and to conduct contract familiarization sessions.  Please provide us suggestions on preferred locations and times (during non-work time and accommodating those on other than 5x8 first-shift). 

In the meantime, we thought the following would be helpful and might spur some good questions.  The following points represent the prospective transition to SPEEA representation.  Again, we are still working on retrospective analysis. 

Changes:

• Employees can elect automatic dues deductions starting with the first paycheck (Jan. 3) of 2013..
• We are working with management to assure participation in the retention rating process – performed at least annually.  The ratings serve to notify individuals where they stand relative to their peers.  The ratings are used if and when any reduction in force should occur to determine the order of layoff in any given skill. (reference: Article 8 of the appropriate contract)
• You will accrue retirement credit under the Boeing Company Employee’s Retirement Plan (BCERP).  This includes those employees hired after January 1, 2009 who are currently without a defined benefit pension plan. 
• All employees with a last hire date prior to January 1, 2007 are now covered by the early retirement medical plan (Reference Article 16.3 of either the Professional or Technical Unit contracts)
• Long-term disability coverage is not employer paid.  Hence, we strongly encourage employees to enroll in the plan during the open enrollment (30 days from Dec.14).  Long-term coverage still covers the employee after Short-Term Disability coverage ends.  The SPEEA represented plan provides 60% of the employee’s pre-disability earnings tax free.  The non-represented plan provides 50% coverage taxed as ordinary income.  The SPEEA plan costs employees $0.267 per month for each $1,000 of covered compensation (e.g. $100,000 salary coverage costs $26.70 per month).
• Members will be able to vote on the Company’s contract offer(s)
• Any employee called into a discussion with management where the employee reasonably believes the discussion could lead to discipline is entitled to have a union representative present.
• You now have access to the Ed Wells Partnership joint SPEEA/Boeing training program. The program gives  employees additional training opportunities including conference grants, BEN training as well as more traditional training opportunities (http://edwells.web.boeing.com/).
• Employees have a challenge process to obtain a Salaried Job Classification upgrade (SJC) (reference Article 22 of the appropriate Contract)
• For engineers, overtime is no longer restricted by the Extended Work Week (EWW) provisions.  Overtime is still paid at time plus $6.50 but for all time worked in excess of 80 compensated hours in a pay period. 
• For engineers, partial days of sick leave are now charged to non-industrial sick leave (non-ind) and will not deduct from your sick leave balance
• For engineers: With management coordination, employees may use leave with pay [Personal Business (PERBUS)] for partial day absences due to reasons other than sick leave.

What doesn’t change:

• You still have the same management reporting structure.
• Holiday schedule
• Salary increases are still determined based upon individual performance ratings and are conducted in the February/March time frame.  However, the SPEEA Contracts guarantee both the pool size available for employees as well as a minimum per individual.  Both of these are yet to be determined as we are still in the bargaining process.
• Your medical coverage does not immediately change.  We are still working to determine the most appropriate method to convert employees to the SPEEA represented medical plans.
• Your VIP contributions are the same; with the Company’s match in cash. (Until recently the match was in Boeing stock rather than cash for non-represented employees.)
• The vacation accrual and award process remains the same.
• Flexing of one’s time remains an option; however, management cannot force an employee to flex.
• Short-term disability coverage

What remains to be determined:

• How to handle time under the Pension Value Plan (PVP) relative to conversion to BCERP credit including the 85 pt plan for certain employees

Employees of The Boeing Company who worked in Palmdale and Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., are due back pay and benefits that could total in the millions of dollars, according to a federal arbitrator. The Nov. 1 ruling said the company for years wrongly denied the engineers and technical workers the better pay and benefits of employees represented by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001.

The ruling rejected every Boeing argument and culminates a near 12-year effort by SPEEA to reestablish union representation for the now more than 550 employees Boeing denied coverage under SPEEA Professional and Technical collective bargaining agreements going back to 1999.

“It’s ethically deplorable that Boeing disregarded the plain language of these contracts, imposed its own interpretation and denied these employees the pay and benefits they were entitled to,” said Rich Plunkett, SPEEA director of strategic development. “This is not a technical violation. It’s a violation that took money out of employee paychecks and benefits away from their families.”

The arbitrator ordered Boeing to “make whole” all engineering and technical employees who worked at the sites in job classifications represented by SPEEA since March 5, 2001. Stating: “Clearly, the employees who were wrongfully excluded from the professional and technical bargaining units suffered a loss due to the time value of money,” the arbitrator also ordered Boeing to pay each employee 10 percent interest on the back pay. Boeing must also pay SPEEA back dues for the affected employees and cover the cost of arbitration.
Since 1976, engineers and technical workers at the sites were recognized as being covered under the SPEEA Puget Sound Professional and Technical contracts. However, starting in 2000, SPEEA learned Boeing was listing and filling engineer and technical positions at Edwards Air Force Base and Boeing Palmdale as non-union positions. The company’s action resulted in employees receiving lower pay and reduced benefits than called for in the union contracts.

Taking action to remedy the issue, SPEEA filed a grievance against Boeing in March 2001. With Boeing fighting and appealing every step of the way, the issue resulted in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision for SPEEA in 2006. Boeing appealed that decision, bringing on a whole new series of actions and appeals which finally brought the issue to the federal arbitrator in May.

Over the years, union membership at Edwards Air Force Base and Palmdale steadily declined as workers transferred, retired or left Boeing. The arbitrator’s award includes employees hired before and after the grievance was filed.

The full Opinion and Award of the Arbitrator is available on the SPEEA website at: www.speea.org.
SPEEA and Boeing are presently negotiating new contracts for 23,000 engineers and technical workers at facilities around Puget Sound, Portland, Utah and California. Union members rejected Boeing’s initial offer by 96 percent. Talks continue this week.

A local of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), SPEEA represents 26,560 aerospace professionals at Boeing, Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kansas, and Triumph Composite Systems, Inc. in Spokane, Wash.