Boeing's Offer was Step Backward; Showed Company's Wants to Break Workers.

News Desks/Business Editors

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 28, 2000

--Gore visits -- says he will look into FAA process--

The Boeing Company's last offer to its striking engineers and technical workers was little more than a shell game, aimed at winning public sympathy and not bringing an end to the 19-day-old strike.

The offer moved some money, however it also sought to impose benefit co-pays and medical premiums, items union officials have said are unacceptable. When the union offered to show the company ways to make the contract acceptable with only minor cost increases, the company refused to listen. In the end, Boeing negotiators put an end to the talks after receiving the union's counter proposal.

"They are inflexible to the point of dismay," said Charles Bofferding, executive director of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA, IFPTE, Local 2001, AFL-CIO). "The company's top executives are now sacrificing the employees and the company itself, simply to save face." During three days of talks mediated by C. Richard Barnes, director of Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services, the company refused to meet face to face with the union. On the final day, the company spent seven hours building a spreadsheet of about one dozen items. The items differed only marginally from the original contract offers SPEEA members voted down on Dec. 1 by margins of 98 and 99 percent.

"The Boeing negotiators made a mockery of the collective bargaining process," said Paul Almeida, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE, AFL-CIO) "In 20 years of negotiating, I've never seen anything like the last three days. It was insulting." No new talks are scheduled.

One "improvement" Boeing made in their latest offer was the addition of stock options. Under the proposal, SPEEA-represented employees would be able to buy 100 shares of Boeing stock over five years. The stock would be priced at today's value. SPEEA estimates that on a best case scenario the total five-year option package might be worth $1,000.

"It sounds nice but the reality is it's very little," said Bofferding. "And, they are just options. The employee still has to spend their own money to buy the stock."

The company also offered to allow SPEEA to hold a vote to determine if all represented employees should pay a fee to the union to cover the cost of representation. This offer too sounds better than the reality. Tucked neatly into the Boeing offer to allow a vote on agency fee was wording that prohibited all employees from talking about the proposal and election in the workplace. Employees who did communicate, which included using e-mail or bulletin boards, may face disciplinary action. The company also said the measure needed to secure 75 percent of the people eligible to vote to pass. Under these criteria, every person who does not vote effectively casts a no vote.

"This is classic union busting. The Boeing Company wants to break this union," Bofferding said. "What they fail to realize is that our members are ready for a long fight. They are committed to saving The Boeing Company. And, make no mistake, this is a fight for The Boeing Company, not against it." The company's final offer made very minor adjustments to the guaranteed wage package, offered no bonus, contained numerous co-pays and required workers to pay a portion of their medical premium. "The entire proposal was regressive," Bofferding said. "They actually moved backward."

Bofferding said the company made it clear its strategic management plan was to force workers to begin paying more and more of their benefit and healthcare costs. Doing away with the co-pays and employee paid premiums would cost the company about $26.50 a month for each employee. The cost of the total salary and benefits package for the SPEEA bargaining units is about $1.5 billion.

The union is currently collecting information about the airplanes Boeing claims to be delivering. On the day of the strike, Boeing had 15 airplanes at least 95 percent completed. Many of the "sign-offs" by the designating engineering representatives (DERs) had already been inked. Only 24 of the more than 400 DERs remain on the job. These remaining DERs do not represent the diverse specialties needed to certify the hundreds of parts, procedures and aircraft systems the normal process of Federal Aviation Authority certification requires.

"We don't know how they are certifying these airplanes with everyone who is able to certify for the FAA out on strike," said Bofferding.

At least one of the deliveries is being returned to Boeing, according to Almeida. That plane was the first strike delivery claimed by Boeing, a $187 million Atlas Air, Inc. cargo airplane. "It needs some work," Almeida said.

On Sunday, Vice President Al Gore greeted about 600 striking workers in front of Boeing's corporate headquarters. When asked about FAA employees taking the place of Boeing Company DERs to perform the certification work, Gore said: "I have just been made aware of the situation and I don't agree with it. I don't think it's right. We'll have to look into it."

On Tuesday (Feb. 29) AFL-CIO President John Sweeney will join picketers at the Renton Boeing plant. Sweeney will "Walk the Line" at Logan and 6th Street at 4:30 p.m. Sweeney will also address and reiterate the AFL-CIO's support for the striking engineers and technical workers.

SPEEA members rejected two contact offers before striking. Each offer contained benefit take-a-ways and pools of money that keep technical workers below market level wages. The offers also lacked a bonus. The International Association of Machinists (IAM) took a 10 percent bonus from Boeing during their contract negotiations last year. SPEEA members also received bonuses during the past five contracts. A third bargaining unit in Wichita, Kansas, is working without a contract. Union members there voted rejected Boeing's offer on Dec. 5 by a margin of 99 percent.

Current figures show SPEEA represents 22,000 Boeing engineers and technical workers in Washington, Oregon, Kansas, California, Arizona, Utah and Florida.