Overview
- Union members voted on Friday, Aug. 21, to reject the tentative four-year agreement, with engineers defeating it by 64.3% and technicians by 71.9%.
- Separate strike-authorization ballots passed by wide margins, with 87.9% of engineers and 89.7% of technicians approving a strike if no new deal is reached before the contracts expire on Oct. 6.
- SPEEA negotiators had endorsed the tentative agreement but the bargaining-unit councils did not back it, exposing a split between the union’s negotiating team and rank-and-file members.
- A central complaint is the pay formula: raises tied to inflation are capped at 3% and partly linked to company-determined performance metrics, which members say risks real-wage loss if inflation stays higher.
- SPEEA leaders said they will survey members and seek new talks, possibly next week, while Boeing faces the immediate risk that a strike after Oct. 6 would add to delays in Seattle production that followed the 2024 IAM machinists’ strike.