Seattle, February 29, 2024–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Flight Technology and Safety Pilots Union, part of Boeing’s Operations Group, has first-hand experience with the types of safety culture issues that a panel of experts reported on earlier this week. It says that there is.
A highly critical report released by the Federal Aviation Administration on February 26 shows the gap between Boeing’s senior executives’ commitment to safety and quality and the conditions Boeing employees face on the job. He said there was a “dissociation”.
SPEEA, the labor union representing about 20 Boeing technical and safety pilots, said it is experiencing the situation as it negotiates new contracts with pilots.
The technical and safety pilots represented by SPEEA perform three primary duties at Boeing.
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They are the company’s liaison with the Federal Aviation Administration, National Transportation Safety Board, and aviation safety regulators around the world.
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They work closely with Boeing customers to ensure airlines have comprehensive safety operations plans.
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They are on-call consultants who help flight crews understand the nuances of safely flying Boeing aircraft.
The collective bargaining agreement for these pilots expires on Monday.
Salary is the most contentious issue in these negotiations.
“Boeing’s final proposal is to pay technical and safety pilots 28.6% less than Boeing’s corporate pilots, who drive executives,” said SPEEA Executive Director Ray Goforth. . “With the entire world focused on Boeing’s safety culture, it was truly eye-opening to see how different Boeing’s management team values the safe operation of their products and executive comfort.”
SPEEA said negotiations were not going well as Boeing negotiators did not attend the final two negotiations scheduled for this week.
In another bizarre development, Boeing told SPEA negotiators to sign a retroactive non-disclosure agreement to prevent the union from telling its members how low their wages are compared to other companies in the industry. I asked for it. SPEEA refused. Goforth called the request “bizarre.”
He said, “To put this into context, Boeing has systematically hollowed out the SPEEA Pilot Instructor Division and replaced valuable Boeing expertise with contractors, resulting in a loss of access to Boeing’s airline customers.” “The decline in expert advice is another example of a safety culture problem.” Highlighted by the FAA. ”
Boeing on March 8 began discussions with the International Association of Machinists about new contracts for more than 32,000 production workers in the Pacific Northwest. This comes four days after the contracts for flight technical pilots and safety pilots represented by SPEEA expired.
SPEEA represents more than 19,000 engineers, scientists, technical workers and pilots at Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems facilities in Washington, Kansas, California, Oregon and Utah.
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