Engineers and technical workers at Spirit AeroSystems voted down the company’s contract offer Thursday evening.
Members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, or SPEEA, in Wichita soundly rejected the contract offer, with 96.5 percent of those who voted rejecting the contract. However, no labor strike is pending.
“This overwhelming rejection should convince Spirit that more work needs to be done in improving their offer,” said Bill Hartig, who lead SPEEA’s negotiating team at the Kansas site.
Spirit is a major supplier to the Boeing Co., which also has engineers and technical workers who are represented by SPEEA. The contract between Boeing and SPEEA here in the Puget Sound area expires next year.
SPEEA represents 2,300 workers at Spirit. Union leaders had urged members to vote down Spirit’s offer, saying the contract offered below-market wages, doubled medical premiums and expanded Spirit’s ability to use temporary, rather than union, workers. Spirit was offering a nearly 10 year contract.
For more on the SPEEA vote, read this Wichita Eagle story.
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