SEATTLE, 19 Dec. 2013. Just as machinists fight to retain Boeing work through 2024, another professional aerospace labor union is chiming in on behalf of engineers, pilots, and other technical aerospace industry workers.
This week, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001—which currently represents employees at The Boeing Company, Spirit AeroSystems, and Triumph Composite Systems—are questioning Boeing’s decision to splinter its Puget Sound-based research operations. The decision, which would shift 1,200 jobs to various locations around the country, is being evaluated closely by SPEEA leaders and staff experts to ensure contract protections are followed, officials say.
Company representatives presented the plan for restructuring Boeing Research and Technology (BR&T) to SPEEA officials on 12 Dec. 2013 during a joint Workforce meeting “hastily requested by the company,” according to an SPEEA spokesperson. “As outlined by Boeing, the restructuring will impact from 550 to 800 SPEEA-represented employees during the next two years. Boeing officials would not elaborate on the mix of engineers and technical workers at existing facilities who will be displaced.”
SPEEA leaders questioned Boeing officials about the impacted skill codes, offering voluntary layoff or relocation packages to existing employees, and other specifics. Boeing officials present did not provide answers.
“We are actively engaging Boeing to get the answers our members deserve,” SPEEA President Tom McCarty affirms. SPEEA leaders are encouraging members to ask their managers for answers.
-- Washington State works to hold onto Boeing
-- SPEEA wants details on Boeing research restructuring
-- Washington leaders court Airbus in the U.S.
-- Washington Governor Jay Inslee supports union member vote on Boeing contract proposal
-- Machinists march in protest of union leadership’s rejection of Boeing offer
