SEATTLE (AP) -- Less than two months after narrowly averting a strike by its Machinists union, The Boeing Co. opened formal talks Tuesday with the engineering union that went on strike nearly three years ago over proposed increases in health care costs.þþThe Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, the company's second-largest union, is negotiating three new contracts for 18,900 engineering and technical employees who work primarily in the Boeing Commercial Airplanes unit of Chicago-based Boeing.þþBoeing's largest union, the Machinists, decided earlier this year not to strike over its contract, which it called an attack on job security. The machinists rejected the offer, but didn't approve a strike vote, so it took effect anyway.þþCharles Bofferding, executive director of the engineering union known as SPEEA, said he's optimistic the union and the company can work out ``a plan that makes sense.''þþ``Boeing can afford a good contract,'' Bofferding said. ``What they can't afford is a bad contract.''þþThe union was so incensed by the company's offer in 2000 that it struck for 40 days and got the proposed changes withdrawn. Not only did the union gain more than 2,000 members during that period, it also persuaded 5,000 nonmembers to walk out for at least part of the strike.þþBoeing, facing intense competition from Airbus and seeing its airline customers struggling, must become more efficient and competitive, said Hank Queen, the company's vice president of engineering and product integrity.þþMore than negotiating a contract, Queen said, ``a vote on this contract is basically a vote on our future.''þþTo that end, Boeing wants to double productivity from engineers, a task engineers say would be better accomplished by offering small contract gains rather than pushing for workers to pay health care premiums, as the company did with the Machinists union.þþSince the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Boeing has laid off nearly 30,000 workers -- including 2,335 SPEEA-represented employees. The company has said more job cuts will come in the next 18 months.þþJob security isn't the only issue. SPEEA wants big increases in wages, saying its workers lag behind market pay. Engineering workers covered by the union in Wichita, Kan. and the Puget Sound area make an average of $71,000 to $75,000. SPEEA technical workers in the Puget Sound area make an average of about $53,000.þþ``The Boeing Co. is not on the verge of bankruptcy,'' Bofferding said, pointing to its record of billion-dollar profits in most years. ``It's a healthy company that can afford to position itself in the market.''þþBut both Queen and Bofferding said they think a strike can be avoided.þþ``We think we're the best problem solvers in the world,'' Bofferding said.þþBoeing is to present its ``best and final'' Puget Sound-area contract proposal Nov. 12. Wichita employees will receive their final offer Nov. 18. The contracts for the Puget Sound workers expire at midnight Dec. 1. The Wichita contract expires at midnight Dec. 5.þþThe union represents 3,600 others in seven states whose contracts are not up for negotiation.þþ
Source: NY Times
