The technical workers at the Boeing Co.’s Northwest facilities have voted to approve a new four-year contract, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA)/IFPTE Local 2001 announced Monday night.  

Last month, the technical workers narrowly voted to reject the tentative contract, while the professional workers unit of engineers approved their contract. This latest vote, said SPEEA, was on the same pact the technical workers previously rejected.  

The United States and 10 other countries are negotiating our next big trade agreement, called Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP. It's time to re-examine what works and what doesn't work.

Imagine a thought experiment, where we put environmentalists in each country in charge of negotiating the next trade agreement. Preposterous! I know. Stick with me. This is a thought experiment.

One group of workers at Boeing’s Pacific Northwest facilities voted to accept the company’s latest contract offer, while a second voted to reject the deal and to authorize a strike if necessary, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA)/IFPTE Local 2001 announced Tuesday.

Thousands of engineers and technical workers at Boeing Co. plants in the Pacific Northwest will begin voting next week on the latest contract offer and whether to authorize a strike, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA)/IFPTE Local 2001 announced Thursday.

Flight attendants who work for Spirit Airlines filed a lawsuit against the airline for reneging on a contractual commitment to provide equal benefits for all employees by forcing employees who want health care coverage for their domestic partners into a lower-quality health care plan than the plan covering other employees. The flight attendants, members of the Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA), said that management is using procedural loopholes to avoid providing equal benefits.

We've heard a lot about loss of labor rights in Wisconsin, "right to work" for less legislation in Indiana and now Michigan. We get the impression that laws in those states had somehow required workers to join unions.

Quite the contrary. Unions are the bargaining agent for the employees, negotiating contracts with employers—binding legal contracts, sacred to conservative think tanks everywhere.

As thousands of engineers and technical workers at Boeing Co. plants in the Pacific Northwest took part in a “Day of Action,” negotiations between Boeing and the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA)/IFPTE Local 2001 resumed Wednesday in Seattle and continue today. In the fall, the workers overwhelmingly (15,092 to 608) rejected an initial contract offer.

We hear two views about the high-tech workforce.

On one hand, employers warn of a dire labor shortage. On the other, recent high-tech graduates can't find jobs. Many face crushing student loans that they may never pay off. Mid-career high-tech workers are steadily being let go. Discouraged mid-career workers take lower-paid service jobs after months of searching for a job as good as the one they lost.

Engineers and technical workers at the Boeing Co. overwhelmingly rejected the company’s contract in a mail ballot ratification vote announced last night. The workers are members of Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA)/IFPTE Local 2001.

Boeing had claimed the union’s negotiating team did not represent the workers’ desires, says SPEEA Executive Director Ray Goforth. But on recommendation of the committee, the workers rejected the contract 15,092 to 608. Says Goforth:

Fifty-nine pilot and flight simulator instructors at The Boeing Company voted by a 4-to-1 margin to join the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA)/IFPTE Local 2001 in an election that was certified today.