Boeing's second largest union, which represents about 24,000 engineers and technical workers, most of them in Washington state, is anything but peaceful these days.
After four of the seven board members voted last month to end the 16-year employment of Executuve Director Charles Bofferding, those four board members themselves are now facing a possible recall vote.
The current three-year SPEEA contract (in the Puget Sound area) with Boeing ends in December 2008. Boeing's contract with its more militant Machinists union ends at midnight Sept. 1, 2008.
Contract talks with both unions will come at a critical time next year for Boeing. A strike by either union could disrupt production of Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner, which is set to enter airline service in May 2008. Production will just be ramping up when serious labor talks get under way.
Cynthia Cole, the SPEEA president who was against the motion to terminate Bofferding, told me in an interview Tuesday that at least 10 percent of the SPEEA membership has signed recall petitions. That's all that is required, although the signatures must be validated by the union's Tellers committee. If the committee determines the petitions pass muster, then the clock would start ticking on the recall vote, with ballots mailed out to members.
Nothing is certain at this point, but emotions are running high.
Read the latest in my Aerospace Notebook.
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