June 30 (Reuters) – Boeing and the union representing its engineers and technical workers said on Tuesday they would begin formal contract talks ahead of the expiration of their labor agreements in October.
The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, which represents roughly 17,000 members, said it was seeking better pay, improved benefits and more flexible work arrangements.
The talks are Boeing’s third major contract negotiations in as many years. The previous two, covering the planemaker’s commercial aircraft workers and a separate bargaining unit of defense workers, both represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, ended in extended strikes.
Boeing wants to avoid another strike, which could further delay certification campaigns for Boeing’s 737 MAX 7 and 10 – the smallest and largest variants of the single-aisle jet – and the 777-9, its largest jetliner. The company is already years behind schedule on certification, which is engineering-intensive work.
“Anything that jeopardizes our progress would hurt our customers and throw our recovery off course,” Ben Nimmergut, Boeing’s vice president and functional chief engineer for production engineering, said in a letter sent to SPEEA members on Tuesday.
The negotiations are an opportunity to show “the respect we have for you and the important work you do,” he said.
“The dollars we’d spend executing a contingency plan could instead be invested in all of you as we work toward a strong contract offer,” he said.
The 737 MAX 7 could be certified before the current SPEEA contract expires. Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Bryan Bedford told Reuters in May that he expects the aircraft to be certified this summer, followed by the MAX 10 by the end of the year.
The 777-9 will not be fully certified until 2026, according to the company.
(Reporting by Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru and Dan Catchpole in Seattle; Editing by Joyjeet Das and Nick Zieminski)
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