Boeing (BA +2.57%) employees have voted to accept a four-year contract offer, avoiding a strike.
Last night, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) announced that by a vote of 4,244 to 654, Boeing technical workers represented by SPEEA agreed to accept the company's latest contract offer. They had rejected the offer last month and voted to grant strike authorization. Monday's vote eliminated the risk of a strike by either of the two halves of Boeing employees represented by the union. The engineers voted to accept Boeing's four-year contract offer last month.
The offer Boeing's technical workers agreed to, which SPEEA describes as "identical to the offer Technical workers narrowly rejected ... on Feb. 19," largely tracks the terms of Boeing's previous contract with its technicians. Key terms include:
- Pools of workers will receive an average of 5% annual salary increases during the four years the new contract is in effect.
- Costs for medical coverage will not increase.
- Defined-contribution retirement benefits will increase.
Those hired after March 1, 2013, will not qualify for a Boeing defined-benefit pension. Instead, new hires will be able to participate in an "enhanced 401(k)" plan. SPEEA and Boeing started negotiations in April 2012. Technical workers had been without a contract since Nov. 25.
