Boeing (BA.US) reaches a tentative labor contract agreement with engineers' union, salary increase rises to 10%

According to information from Zhihui Finance APP, Boeing (BA.US) and its engineers' union reached a tentative labor contract agreement on Friday. This new four-year proposal includes higher general wage increases than the first plan. If approved, around 17,000 members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) professional and technical units will receive a 10% pay raise on October 16, followed by a 4% annual general wage increase and performance raises each year from 2027 to 2030. The union disclosed that the latest proposal also includes adjustments to the remote work policy and overtime limits for professional unit members.

The current contract is set to expire on October 6. If an agreement is not reached by then, SPEEA members could go on strike. SPEEA members are crucial to the certification work of the Boeing 737 MAX 10 and 777-9 models, both of which are already several years behind their original schedules.

After SPEEA members overwhelmingly rejected Boeing's initial proposal in a vote on August 21, members indicated in an internal survey that their top demand was a higher general wage increase. The previously rejected proposal offered a 3% general wage increase. Several SPEEA members said that such a rate would almost certainly cause their salaries to fall behind inflation.

The SPEEA negotiating team said in a statement: “We clearly heard your voices in the survey responses and at town hall meetings. We brought your concerns to the bargaining table, and they influenced every conversation with Boeing executives.” The team stated that this tentative agreement “is not everything we asked for, but it is a real step toward improving our pay and work/life balance, as well as rebuilding the relationship between Boeing leadership and our union members.”

Ben Niemergut, Boeing vice president of production engineering and acting chief engineer, stated: “Our final contract proposal addresses the primary concerns raised by our employees and the SPEEA negotiating team, including immediate pay increases and larger, guaranteed wage pools.”