Boeing technical workers to re-vote on contract

EVERETT -- Boeing's technical workers will have to re-vote on the same contract they rejected Feb. 19 after Boeing Co. declined to accept all of the union's latest proposals.

According to the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) Union, the technical workers with Boeing Co. were not offered any more concessions from the company in their latest attempt to renegotiate a contract. Leaders of the Technical negotiating team will resubmit the existing contract offer to the membership for another vote.

Leaders with the union said though Boeing's decision to not budge on pension-related issues was disappointing, the new contract is still better than they had first hoped.

"While disappointing that the current offer eliminates the pension for anyone hired after March 1, 2012, accepting the company's last offer would locking the considerable improvements we achieved since Boeing's initial, very regressive, offer..." Union officials said.

The latest contract offer would replace worker's pension benefits with 401(k) plans for new hires. Boeing's current workers would have their pension benefits increased under the new contract.

The next contract will be voted on by 7,400 technical workers, who stand alone after Boeing's engineers, who make up two-thirds of SPEEA's membership, already voted to accept the contract offer earlier this month. That vote marked the first time Boeing union workers issued a split decision since the 90s.