Boeing white-collar union rejects contract offer

Boeing's 17,000 members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) have overwhelmingly rejected the company's four-year contract offer. Union officials reported that the engineers voted 64% against the agreement, while technical workers voted 72% against it. The union has now implemented its strike contingency plan, as no new talks are scheduled between Boeing and SPEEA.

Boeing's vice president and functional chief engineer for production engineering, Ben Nimmergut, acknowledged the disappointment in the engineers' and technical workers' vote and stated that the company must maintain its momentum by implementing the contingency plan. SPEEA members expressed concerns about the wage increases being insufficient to keep up with the high cost of living in Seattle, which is home to most of the union's members.

The offer included inflation-linked wage increases capped at 3% and performance-based increases. However, several members argued that a 3% cap would likely result in their salaries falling behind inflation, given that the Consumer Price Index for the area rose 4.5% over the past year. Boeing claimed that the offer represented the largest wage increase for SPEEA in 40 years. The last time SPEEA negotiated a new contract with Boeing was in 2012 for its Northwest members.