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<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Mike Benbow, Business Editor benbow@heraldnet.com   Published: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 SPEEA gets new contract ready to mail to members By Michelle Dunlop Herald Writer EVERETT -- Boeing Co. engineers and technical workers soon will weigh in on whether to approve the company's four-year contract offer. "Both sides seem happy with it," said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst for the Teal Group, on Monday. Negotiators and advisers for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace gave their endorsement late Friday of Boeing's contract offer. The union finished preparing the contract ballots Monday. SPEEA's 21,000 members should receive their ballots later this week. Engineers and technical workers can mail their ballots or cast them in person at local SPEEA halls until 5 p.m. Dec. 1. In the new contract, Boeing provides a salary increase pool of 5 percent each year of the contract with guaranteed increases of 2 percent annually for engineers and 2.5 percent annually for technical workers. The remaining funds will be distributed based on merit as annual salary increases. "This agreement provides market-competitive pay and benefits that enable us to attract and retain the best talent, remain on the leading edge of technology and continue to win business in uncertain times," Doug Kight, Boeing's lead negotiator, said Friday. Bill Dugovich, communications director for SPEEA, said Boeing's offer represents the highest wage increase that engineers have seen since 1992. Under the contract signed late that year, the company put aside an increase of 6 percent of engineers' salaries for merit-based raises. The offer also includes a bump in pension and continued participation in the employee incentive plan and provides SPEEA more say in regards to outsourcing. "For engineering, outsourcing has clear limits," analyst Aboulafia said. Boeing tested those limits with its 787 Dreamliner jet. The company relied on global partners to complete both design work and production of major assemblies. But Boeing officials recently have said they'll do things differently in terms of outsourcing engineering work for the company's next new aircraft. Outsourcing had also been a major issue for Boeing's Machinists union. The Machinists shut down production of Boeing jets for 57 days this autumn over their contract, citing outsourcing, wages, pension and health care as issues. The Machinists also got from Boeing greater input on outsourcing. Aboulafia thinks there's more societal "baggage" or pressure on the Machinists union than there is on SPEEA. With the nation's auto industry suffering, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers represents one of the few successful unions for manufacturing workers. Engineers and technical workers are still in high demand in this country. And programs like the 787, or Boeing's new 747-8 and 777 Freighter, need intense engineering work, analyst Aboulafia said. "They need the engineers more" than the Machinists, he said. Visit the Aerospace Blog at heraldnet.com to weigh in on Boeing's contract offer to SPEEA. READER COMMENTS Log in or register to post new comment | Log out More on documents and transparency The below is partially from my shareholder proposal written in July of 2007. Was not published for 2008 annual meeting due to " ordinary business" exemption regarding pension issues- However, BA Bored did NOT comment or deny any of my statements. ++++ PENSION INCREASES? Boeing , the press and the unions usually claim an X percent increase in retirement benefits in contracts, but the ALTERNATE benefit formula applicable to most retirees has NOT changed since the early 1990's. The claimed increases apply only to the `Basic benefit' calculation e.g. $XX/month per year of Credited Service. The Basic benefit typically applies to the smaller group of long-term employees with average or below average pay during the 5 years prior to retirement or who have been on extended leaves of absence. +++++ end extract ++ At the current Boeing proposed BASIC benefit of $81/month /year of credited service, and the currently reported average annual salary for an engineer at $92,100, the ALTERNATE formula will apply to at least half of the engineers retiring with around 31 years of service in the next 3 years. For example, Evita Engineer with a final average earnings of approximately $82,500 or higher in 2009 would retire under the current ALTERNATE formula with about $2450/month at 31 years of Credited service in mid 2009. And therein lies the long hidden takeaway in the Boeing BCERP pension plan.Evita Engineer will have been shorted at least $100/month due to the hidden takeaways built in since the early 80's ! The takeaways have always been a function of two features, how Credited Service is calculated, and a factor in the ALTERNATE formula labeled Covered Compensation which is subtracted from Final Average earnings and the residual multiplied by .00450 which is added to the benefit. Since Covered Compensation has been increasing at a rate of over 5 percent/year, the result is several months/year of NO increase in benefit, and an ever decreasing additional amount added to the Core benefit The Credited Service takeaway has always had more effect on the ALTERNATE formula than on the BASIC formula, due to the way it is awarded at the rate of 45/hours/week against a maximum of 2000 hours/ year. The combined effects of Credited service and Covered Compensation have shorted thousands of retirees over since the early 80's. All union members should demand that Boeing AND SPEEA also publish the legal plan documents involved as part of ANY contract, and correct the items mentioned above plus some others which are not easily described here. D S | Nov 19, 2008 9:48 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal About the Kontract When will you EVER learn ? An interesting note. Most every engineer and perhaps a few Techs who may retire in the next 3 or 4 years might be somewhat chagrined to find out that their pension will be a smaller percentage of their final salary than those who retire under the basic benefit. Unless they have received enough raises over the preceding five years to AVERAGE over 5 percent plus annually - the rate of increase of the SS covered compensation. The alternate benefit formula has ripped you off for nearly two decades, - and SPEEA has been well aware of it See page 2 of http://home.att.net/~justfacts/SISTER_SALLY_RETIRES.pdf or the shorter version http://tinyurl.com/6e7ote Then read about reduced accrual rates at http://home.att.net/~justfacts/july03final204hregs.pdf or http://tinyurl.com/5uzsqj So why hasn't your N- team asked Steve delapp of Segal to run an analysis and publish his comments BEFORE YOU VOTE ! UNTIL AND UNLESS ENROLLED ACTUARIES AND ERISA QUALIFIED LAWYERS ARE USED BY SPEEA, THE TAKEAWAYS WILL CONTINUE ! Did you know that 1/5 of the SPEEA staff - ex Boeing employees continue to accrue pension service from Boeing? Check it out on the Boeing Blues system - you will find they are on approved LOA. It takes Both the UNION and the Company to approve such leave ! What are the ground rules, the policy ? And why is Bofferding still on LOA from Boeing? Ask Cynthia , Ask stan Sorcher, ask Bob Rommel So who do You believe will benefit from the standard benefit increase the Most ? They also get a SPEEA pension and savings- and in some cases- a teamster pension ! - Paid for with YOUR dues! D S | Nov 19, 2008 7:48 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal SPEEA contract Of course Boeing is happy, they've hosed the SPEEA folks again. The people who run SPEEA are usually kissing up to the company and holding hands under the table, so they're happy. They have a lot of nerve to recommend that contract! I've been with Boeing for nearly 29 years and have watched my contracts deteriorate every time. Too bad most of SPEEA's membership is uninvolved and uninformed. The t-shirts SPEEA had everyone wear stated "24000 Strong". It should read 4000 strong, 20,000 wimps. Way to cave in SPEEA! Lisa Elias | Nov 18, 2008 1:59 pm | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Say What? I get so tired of these so called experts "Both sides seem happy with this contract" We I can only hope that we make it loud and clear THAT THIS CONTRACT IS UNACCEPTABLE and vote it down. Compare it to the IAM contract and it is not even in the same ball park. You would never know that these 2 contracts came from the same company with in weeks of each other. Nolan Foss | Nov 18, 2008 6:09 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Say What? I get so tired of these pundits!! "Both sides seem to be happy with it" well I can only hope that the only ones who matter when it comes to what we think about it make it loud and clear "THIS CONTRACT IS UNACCEPTABLE Nolan Foss | Nov 18, 2008 6:05 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal

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