Tagged: engineers

When Boeing engineers and technicians walked off the job 13 years ago, they said it wasn’t just for more money. They wanted to improve the culture of the company and chart a new course for organized labor. Did they succeed?

At first blush, it looked like a resounding success. The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, or SPEEA, had won a contract with everything they had asked for. Executive Director Charlie Bofferding was triumphant in an interview with KING 5.

“We’re interacting now based on power and respect, and that’s where we want to be,” Bofferding said.

Boeing engineers and the company are supposed to meet with a federal mediator today – but union leaders say the two sides are still far apart. Looming over the negotiations is a memory that's 13 years old, but still fresh for many.

In early 2000, Boeing engineers and technicians did what nobody expected them to do – walk off the job and stay off.

The union representing Boeing engineers and technicians has filed an unfair labor practices complaint against the company, charging that Boeing is trying to muzzle its union members as contract negotiations heat up.

The complaint filed yesterday with the National Labor Relations Board in Seattle says Boeing has threatened union members with discipline if they speak to each other about wages, hours and working conditions.

Boeing spokesman Tim Healy said the company hadn't yet seen the complaint, but he disputed the union's claim, saying no one from Boeing told employees not to discuss working conditions or wages with each other.