Wichita — Tensions at The Boeing Co.'s Wichita plant are intensifying with the vote on decertification of its second-largest union just days away.
Nearly 3,500 technical and professional workers at the Wichita facility will decide Thursday whether to retain the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace.
On Monday, union officials said the company revoked their access to the Wichita plant for lunchtime meetings with workers -- even though the company was having its own employee meetings on the upcoming vote during company time.
Charles Bofferding, executive director of SPEEA, said the union has been having lunchtime meetings with members on a number of issues for the past three years.
That access was revoked last week when union officials wanted to talk to workers about the union perspective on the upcoming vote.
"It is part of their tactics, and I think it is disappointing. It is transparent for our members," Bofferding said. "It says a lot about what the company is trying to do."
Fred Solis, a spokesman for Boeing, said Monday that union officials were scheduling company conference rooms and scheduling meetings at the plant -- something nobody outside the company is allowed to do.
"We appealed to them to cooperative, and they did not," Solis said. "As a last resort, we have taken their badges and will reinstate them when they agree to abide by the policy and the contract."
Educational meetings
As to the company's scheduled meetings, Solis claimed they were to educate workers about the particulars of voting during the work day -- and to stress the importance of voting. He said the meetings were voluntary.
"It is a critical time for the company, with some good opportunities ahead of us," Solis said. "If we focus on working together and competing, it is going to put us in a better position for the future."
Christine Minge, a Boeing quality systems specialist and one of the petition organizers, said union foes had tried to keep the company out of their decertification efforts. She said Boeing had every right to tell the union not to hold meetings in its building.
"When this is all over, we are all going to have to work together," she said.
Representation has been a contentious issue since SPEEA organized at the Wichita plant in June 2000. The union won that election by just 65 votes out of nearly 3,800 cast. Union foes since gathered enough signatures to force another vote on the issue. The current contract is set to expire Feb. 19.
But union officials are confident that with 45 percent of represented workers as union-paying members, they will garner enough support again to win.
Meanwhile, union supporters plan a rally in support of certification on Wednesday in front of the administration building.
Bofferding said the company has been more aggressive this time than it was when the union was first voted in.
"We are not interested in a fight," he said. "It is disappointing to see the company being so aggressive in their desire for employees to think a certain way."
Complaints against Boeing
Last week, SPEEA filed a second complaint against the company with the National Labor Relations Board. The complaint accused Chicago-based Boeing of violating a settlement reached in September concerning its promotion of a program that awards cash bonuses to nonunion employees.
Last month, SPEEA filed a complaint claiming Boeing placed employees, including a former manager, into the bargaining unit so they could start a petition drive, build an anti-union Web site and promote decertification. That complaint was later dropped in order not to delay the decertification vote.
The company has denied those accusations.
Meanwhile, the community is nervously watching the contentious decertification effort amid rumors that Boeing studied the potential sale of the Wichita plant and controversy over the 2003 state aid package.
Wichita lawmakers are planning a legislative hearing -- titled "Boeing's Responsibilities to Its Employees and Communities" -- on Feb. 19 at Interfaith Ministries.
State Rep. Judith Loganbill plans to preside over a panel that includes state Reps. Jim Ward, Tom Sawyer and Geraldine Flaharty -- all Wichita Democrats -- as well as Kansas Secretary of Labor Jim Garner.
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