Published Friday, August 21, 2026 in The Everett Herald
Boeing Union Rejects Latest Contract Proposal, Approves Strike
By Jenna Millikan
Boeing’s engineering and technician union voted Friday to reject the aerospace company’s contract proposal and approved a strike authorization measure.
This comes after the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace's negotiation team unanimously endorsed Boeing’s proposed contracts for the professional and technical units. A strike could not take place until after current contracts expire on Oct. 6.
"The current executive leadership is saying and doing the right things, and the management team that met with us appeared sincere, solution-focused and genuine in their efforts to right the past errors of their predecessors," union representatives said in a press release. "Still, the membership has made clear that the current offer falls short, and without significant improvements to the last offer, they are prepared to strike."
No talks between the union and Boeing are scheduled as of Friday, and the company has “no choice but to implement our contingency plan," said Ben Nimmergut, Boeing’s vice president and functional chief engineer for production engineering, in the statement.
"We gave a strong contract offer to position our employees among the market leaders in pay and benefits in the Pacific Northwest," Nimmergut wrote. "We’re disappointed our engineers and technical workforce voted no on our offer."
As a result, Boeing is implementing its strike contingency plan, Nimmergut said in the statement.
The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace represents around 20,000 aerospace professionals. The professional and technical units represent workers at Boeing sites in Washington, Oregon, California and Utah.
Boeing's pay offer for aggregate wage pool increases of 29.4% over four years was the largest wage-pool increase for union members since 1983, the release said. The company also proposed three extra days of paid leave per year, lower limits on mandatory overtime and more virtual work opportunities.
Boeing proposed biannual meetings for the union and senior executives to discuss future work deployment and a joint labor-management committee on the use of Artificial Intelligence, the release said.
Of the professional unit, representing nearly 13,000 engineers and scientists across Boeing, 64.3% voted against the proposed contract, the release said. Of the technical unit, representing around 4,000 analysts, designers, technicians and other specialists, 71.9% voted no.
The professional unit approved strike authorization with an 87.8% vote. Of the technical unit, 89.7% voted in favor of the strike authorization.
Ninety-two percent of eligible union members voted, the release said.
While the bargaining unit council for the technical unit voted to recommend its contract be rejected, the professional unit’s council did not get the 60% supermajority to recommend for or against.
"It’s important to acknowledge how we got here; this mistrust was built brick-by-brick over the past several contracts," negotiation team members said in the release. "SPEEA-represented jobs eroded, quality and safety took a backseat to schedule, engineering and technical decisions were overruled or worse, ignored, and salaries failed to keep pace with both the market and inflation."
Union negotiators pointed to the Boeing merger with McDonnell Douglas, another aerospace manufacturer, nearly 30 years ago, as the inflection point for Boeing shifting focus to enlarging shareholder returns, in the release.
Union negotiators said they will survey bargaining unit members to learn what they need to approve a contract, in the release.
"Our Negotiation Team is prepared and willing to work with the company toward meaningful movement so that we can come to agreement on new contracts before Oct. 6," said the union representatives in the release. "However, we also are prepared to call for a labor stoppage, based on the overwhelming support of our members for the strike authorization vote."
https://www.heraldnet.com/2026/08/21/boeing-union-rejects-latest-contract-proposal-approves-strike/