WICHITA – The Wichita Technical and Professional Unit (WTPU) recently launched a survey to determine contract priorities for WTPU-represented employees.

Input from the survey will help the WTPU Negotiation Team members develop a contract proposal they will bring to the table with company leaders later this year.

The contract expires Jan. 31, 2026.

If you’re a SPEEA represented employee in the WTPU at Spirit Aerosystems, complete and submit the survey by clicking on the link.

Deadline: Midnight, Friday, Oct. 3.

Join us

Working at Spirit in a SPEEA-represented position and not a member?

Click here to print a membership card or talk to your Council Rep. Not sure who to talk to? Click here to find your Council Rep.

The best way to improve contract wages and benefits (besides taking this survey) is to join our union today—or talk to a coworker about joining.

The correct date for the Northwest Negotiation Prep Committee (NPC) Workforce Town Hall is Thursday, Sept. 18, from 6 to 8 p.m. The print version of the September SPEEA Spotlite listed the wrong date.

For those interested in attending, click here to register if you haven’t already. The Town Hall will feature NPC team members and other leaders talking about workforce issues, the NPC workforce survey and the negotiation process.

The Spotlite article – “Negotiation Prep Committee launches survey on workforce issues” – has been updated online.

Members of the Negotiation Prep Committee (NPC) have been working hard to roll out four contract surveys in four months related to negotiations with Boeing. Each survey will focus on different aspects of the contract.

All SPEEA-represented Profs and Techs are encouraged to take all four surveys to make sure your voice is a part of creating contract proposals. Your input directly impacts what we ask for as a union.

This survey from the NPC Workforce subcommittee focuses on issues such as outsourcing, performance management, layoff/retention and 32-hour work weeks.

Take the survey by 5 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 30, and encourage your SPEEA-represented coworkers to take it, too! 

Upcoming Surveys

October
Employee Relations – Hybrid/remote work, Ed Wells Partnership, Technical Excellence, childcare, health and safety.

November
Benefits – Medical, dental, disability, life insurance, leaves of absence, etc.

December
Compensation – Base pay increases, promotional funds, 401(k), vacation, sick leave, Employee Incentive Plan, shift incentives, etc.

Workforce Town Hall - hybrid Sept. 18

Hear from your NPC team members and other leaders about workforce issues, the survey, the negotiation process at the Workforce Town Hall, from 6 to 8 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 18. The hybrid meeting will be in person at the SPEEA Tukwila hall and online.

Click here to register for Workforce Town Hall (either SPEEA Tukwila or online)

About the NPC

The Negotiation Prep Committee (NPC) is a group of members working with staff to set the stage for the Prof and Tech Negotiation Teams. The committee members work on gathering members’ input and raising awareness about the issues and the negotiation process.

If you are Northwest SPEEA member interested in the Prof or Tech negotiations next year, but don’t plan to apply for the Negotiation Team, consider applying for the nominating committee.

Deadline to apply: 5 p.m., Monday, Sept. 22

This committee reviews applications, interviews candidates and verifies qualifications prior to submitting nominees to the Prof and Tech Bargaining Unit Councils. The committee also helps publish the Negotiation Team eligibility requirements and the application form.

Who serves on the committee

The committee is composed of at least two Council Reps from each bargaining unit and two Executive Board members from the Northwest (if they are not planning to run for the Negotiation Team). Regular SPEEA members are also eligible (and encouraged) to apply.

Reminder: If you are on the nominating committee, you are not eligible to apply for your Negotiation Team.

How to apply

Please apply with your contact information and a brief statement of interest via email to robinf@speea.org by 5 p.m., Monday, Sept. 22. The Prof and Tech BUC officers select the nominating committee from the applicants. The Nominating Committee will kick off Tuesday, Sept. 30 at 4:30 p.m. for members who were selected.

The Wichita Technical and Professional Unit (WTPU) Council Reps just elected members to serve on the WTPU Negotiation Team.

The team:

• Patti Brinkmeyer
• Emily Forest
• Wes Gardner
• James Hatfield
• Cathy Yeager

Now is the time to become a dues-paying member of SPEEA

SPEEA membership impacts negotiations success. Paying dues is making an investment in your union to ensure we have the strength and resources to be effective. Contact your Council Representative today to sign a membership card or click here for more information.

Already a dues-paying member? Join the Contract Action Team (CAT)

You can do a lot to support the negotiation team by helping build awareness. Our negotiation team needs YOUR voice and energy!

RSVP today to susannem@speea.org – if you haven’t yet signed up

About CAT

Join us to learn more about CAT and how you can become a Contract Action Representative. We’ll discuss how CAT members help build membership, share updates to keep coworkers informed and show solidarity in small and large ways throughout negotiations to support your negotiation team.

ST. LOUIS – IAM District Lodge 837 members at Boeing Defense factories in and around St. Louis voted to strike on Aug. 3, in what is that union’s first strike in almost 30 years.

The strike involves 3,200 workers who primarily fabricate parts and assemble military aircraft, including F-15 and F/A-18 fighters, T-7 trainers and MQ-25 refueling drones. Some also produce parts for Boeing’s 777X commercial jet and some are involved in assembling bombs and missiles used by the U.S. military and allies, including Ukraine.

SPEEA’s Executive Board is standing in support of the striking workers. In a letter to IAM 837 leadership, they noted that “Boeing has an unfortunate history of undervaluing its workers” and pledged to “stand with the 3,200 IAM 837 member demanding a contract that reflects their worth.”

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg told Wall Street analysts that the company would “manage” without the striking workers and downplayed the impact the work stoppage would have on the company or its military customers.

The strike came after workers voted to reject two Boeing contract offers, saying that they didn’t do enough to restore concessions the union had agreed to in 2014.

Back then, Boeing had lost a series of defense contracts and was threatening to close its St. Louis facilities unless its unionized workers agreed to major wage and benefit cuts.

Click here for links to:

SPEEA Executive Board letter

SPEEA supports IAM 837 picket sign

SPEEA supports IAM 837 desk tent

As of Aug. 1, Boeing’s mail-order pharmacy switched from Walgreens to CVS. Specialty Pharmacy is also transitioning.

Employees who have received prescriptions from Walgreens in the past year should have already received a mailing from Boeing explaining some of the details of the change.

The Boeing drug list is not changing – the prescription coverage and pricing do not change.

The retail network will remain the exact same, with Walgreens remaining in-network. Prime Therapeutics continues as the pharmacy benefit manager.

If SPEEA-represented employees at Boeing want to access the mail-order site directly, they will need to register through Caremark.com. However, a single sign-on access will be available through myprime.com.

Prescriptions with refills remaining should be automatically sent over to CVS.

FYI on certain prescriptions

Compound drugs and controlled substances cannot be transferred, so your provider must send over a new prescription to CVS.

Questions

If members are unable to resolve their prescription issues, they are encouraged to reach out to SPEEA Contract Administrator and Benefits Coordinator Jason Collette at Jasonc@speea.org.

Know a Northwest SPEEA member who stands out for their involvement in SPEEA? Help the Northwest Council recognize their efforts by nominating them for a recognition award.

Submit your nominations for any of the award categories below to amberm@speea.org by Sept. 5. Include your contact information and specific examples/details that illustrate why your nominee deserves the award.

Award Categories

• New Activist – New to activism in SPEEA within the last year.
• Outstanding Activist – Steps up repeatedly to serve SPEEA members. Participates in multiple committees, supports labor activism and internal organizing.
• Outstanding Leader – Demonstrates leadership in the workplace and the union.
• Lifetime Achievement – Provided significant contributions to SPEEA membership for an extensive period of time.
• Friend of SPEEA – A non-SPEEA organization or community leader who has displayed a significant act of solidarity for SPEEA.
• Union Spirit award – Recognizing a SPEEA member who embodies the spirit of union solidarity in memory of two SPEEA leaders, Joel Funfar, former SPEEA president, and Tony Hickerson, former SPEEA Council chair.

To be eligible, members must live/work in Washington state, Oregon, California or Utah and be a member in good standing.

More than 140 laid-off SPEEA members have been recalled by Boeing through a provision in our union contracts that gives SPEEA members priority in the hiring process.

The union members started returning to work in July, and there has been a steady increase in the number recalled in recent weeks.

In some cases, SPEEA staff members have been involved in helping Boeing contact our laid-off union members and getting them signed up so they could exercise their priority recall rights under our union’s contracts. In all cases, staff have been reviewing the return-to-work offers to ensure Boeing is offering laid-off members the right pay and benefits and to make sure the return-to-work instructions are clear.

Priority recalls are a less-talked-about, but still important, contract right for SPEEA members at Boeing. They ensure that laid-off workers get a chance to return to their old jobs before Boeing starts hiring new workers off the street.

These latest recalls are separate from the 58 workers who were brought back to work by Boeing after our union first filed grievances and then threatened to take the company to arbitration. In those cases, the union members were laid off even though workers loaned to Boeing by other companies, under Industry Assist agreements, were kept in their jobs, which our union alleges was a violation of our contracts with Boeing.

But at this point, about a third of the SPEEA members who were let go by Boeing in a cost-cutting move this past winter have returned to work.

SPEEA members with questions about the priority recall process can contact their Contract Administrators.

SPEEA was recently able to achieve an agreement requiring a return to employment of 58 individuals who were laid off earlier this year. In addition to their jobs, they were also made whole for lost wages and benefits. And the returned employees will have the layoff removed from their employment record.

The layoffs were part of the cost-cutting measures Boeing announced late last year. The result of these measures was the elimination of 2,600 workers for Boeing in Washington state, including 600 represented by SPEEA.

The agreement comes after SPEEA filed a grievance and a request for arbitration alleging at least two violations of the union’s contracts. The first violation was related to the non-disclosure of the use of a particular kind of non-Boeing labor - Industry Assist - as is required by the contracts. The second violation covered the layoff of represented employees while retaining Industry Assist personnel performing the same work.

Boeing initially denied the grievance, citing a contractual document purporting to show the non-Boeing labor individuals (those that the union were grieving) were actually different kinds of non-Boeing labor (i.e. not Industry Assist) and hence not subject to the provisions associated with Industry Assist personnel. However, Boeing had signs in the workplace indicating the individuals were Industry Assist and organization charts available online likewise stated that they were Industry Assist.

When SPEEA demanded a copy of the document describing the employment relationship, Boeing refused. SPEEA informed Boeing of our intent to file an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regarding Boeing’s refusal to provide data relevant to SPEEA contract enforcement.

Ultimately, after a series of meetings with Boeing leadership, Boeing agreed to resolve the matter in SPEEA’s favor and restore the formerly laid-off individuals to their prior positions. Management has begun reaching out directly to impacted employees to arrange for their reinstatement.

About 140 SPEEA Council Reps from multiple states, officers and allies from IFPTE locals and other labor unions (shown above) came together for the annual SPEEA Council Convention and Leadership Conference.

The theme of this year’s conference was “Forging Stronger Relationships, Building a Brighter Future.”

At the convention on May 30, SPEEA Council Reps conducted union business and elected officers for new terms. At the leadership conference May 31, activists took part in training on topics such as grievance handling, organizing, labor law and legislative advocacy.

Special guest speakers included IFPTE President Matt Biggs and IFPTE Secretary-Treasurer Gay Henson along with IAM District 751 President Jon Holden, the keynote speaker at the conference.

See articles and photos coming soon to SPEEA News and SPEEA Spotlite. Also check out our social media sites, including Facebook and Instagram, for more photos.