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SPEEA Supports IAM 751 Efforts to Secure a New Contract from Boeing

SEATTLE-(Business Wire)-September 4, 2008 - The union representing engineers, technical and other aerospace professionals at The Boeing Company calls on management to respect the call by Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire to avoid a strike and negotiate a fair contract with the International Association of Machinists (IAM), District 751.

The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001, supports fellow union members at Boeing and congratulates them on the resounding defeat of the company’s veiled substandard contract offer.

“This is a failure of Boeing management,” said Ray Goforth, executive director of SPEEA. “By forcing this strike vote, Boeing management has again failed its customers, employees and its shareholders.”

SPEEA is distributing “I Support IAM” signs for employees to display in vehicles and at work.

“The company has bulging coffers, plane orders to the horizon and was faced with reasonable union demands," Goforth said. "Instead of sharing the success of The Boeing Company with the employees who made it successful, Boeing is trying to force employees to accept takeaways.

“There is no reason a strike should happen,” Goforth added. “Shareholders should hold Boeing executives accountable."

SPEEA is scheduled to start main table negotiations Oct. 28 for new three-year contracts covering 21,515 employees at Boeing in Washington, Oregon, Utah, Kansas and California. As with the IAM, negotiations start as Boeing has an order backlog worth $346 billion and expects revenue for the year to top $68 billion.

SPEEA has prepared information for its members on how to support the IAM in the event of a strike. The information includes dealing with management efforts to have represented employees perform IAM work. SPEEA members are instructed to decline basic requests and only perform a task if specifically directed by management. If directed, employees are advised to seek specific and detailed instruction for the work, safety requirements and procedures. Finally, they should inform the union office that Boeing management is directing them to perform the work.

A local of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), SPEEA represents 24,999 aerospace professionals at Boeing, Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kan., Triumph Composite Systems, Inc., in Spokane, Wash., and at BAE Systems, Inc., in Irving, Texas.

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