A number of Boeing employees who were wrongfully let go, according to their union contract, are returning to their jobs and getting compensated for the time they were laid off.
The union for the 58 employees, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, raised an issue with the handling of the layoffs.
Rich Plunkett, the union’s director of strategic development, said SPEEA found out that Boeing was employing outside workers, classified as industry assist personnel, to do work that the laid off employees had been doing. That violated the members’ contract.
“In the event of a layoff, a reduction in force, those personnel who are employed as industry assist must be let go before like-skilled, SPEEA represented employees,” Plunkett said.
Boeing did not respond to multiple requests for an interview or comment over email and the phone.
At first, Plunkett said the company denied that these were industry assist personnel. But, eventually, Plunkett said the union and the executives were able to come to an agreement without arbitration.
The union has been looking into possible contract violations since layoffs that included those 58 workers were announced at the end of 2024. Typically, Plunkett said the union does so by looking at data from Boeing to determine if the layoffs are in accordance with the collective bargaining agreements.
But, Plunkett said the company did not provide the union with information that Boeing was using industry assist personnel to do the work that those laid-off employees were performing.
Instead, the union learned about that when an employee told them and asked if it was a violation of the union contract.
It is the union’s understanding that those working in those industry assist personnel positions are still working with Boeing.
Most of the employees who got their jobs back are engineers who do stress and fatigue work.
Employees will receive back pay for the wages and benefits they would have received during the time they were laid off, amounting to just under $2 million, Plunkett said.
Over 600 SPEEA-members have been laid off from Boeing in reductions company-wide due to poor financial performance.
The over 100-year old aerospace company, which was founded in Washington state and is now based in Virginia, employs over 170,000 people. The company has encountered financial losses in part because of problems with the 737 MAX.
The company announced in October that it would be reducing its workforce by 10%.
Boeing shared a press release at the time that read in part, “Our business is in a difficult position, and it is hard to overstate the challenges we face together. Beyond navigating our current environment, restoring our company requires tough decisions and we will have to make structural changes to ensure we can stay competitive and deliver for our customers over the long term.”
Plunkett said the union continues to look into whether there could be other contract violations that may have impacted other members, including using people in purchased services positions to perform laid off employee work.
“ We are continuing our due diligence to uncover who may have been harmed by the retention of somebody we believe is a contractor by another name,” Plunkett said. “And if so, we're gonna pursue it with the same vigor to see about getting these people their jobs back.”
