My Reasons For NO
I voted NO to the contract and I wanted to share my reasons why in case it can help someone on the fence.
- This contract doesn't do enough to incentivize long term retention and growth of high performers at the company.
Boeing relies on institutional memory and we are losing people to Anduril, Blue, SpaceX, Amazon in addition to the historical churn between Lockheed, GE, and Northrop.
The proposed RSUs are the only thing in the contract that will help retain individuals with skill sets (and knowledge) and those aren't enough.
I'd like to see something like a pay bonus for leads, more levels for speea engineers (because 4 promotions over the course of a 40+ yr career isn't enough), or RSU refreshers.
- The remote work LoU is meaningless.
These letters have little meaning and can easily be avoided by Boeing as an organization or more likely by individual managers who just have to give (or create) a reason why on site work is needed.
Unless there is tangible language in the contract protecting flexible work I will not consider this a benefit that was won during bargaining.
I would like to see this take the form of a relocation package being offered to remote/hybrid employees who are forced onsite or onsite requirement pay differential.
- Lack of benefits for young engineers.
Much of the 'wins' in this contract like early retiree healthcare and part time work largely benefit individuals who are 45+ or are close to retirement.
I have seen no corresponding increased benefits for individuals in their 20s. I'm not personally in this demographic but it's hard for me to recruit young engineers.
I think at least sick and vacation time be grouped together which is something that younger employees tend to favor. If we won't offer comp on par with Amazon then we can at least offer them the chance to travel.
- Layoff protections aren't enough.
There was a lot of stress and anxiety during the last round of layoffs. This contract does nothing to meanfuly protect workers against company level mishandlings.
The executives walk away with millions in a golden parashoot after decisions cause disasters but speea engineers get no protections.
We need to contractually obligate the same payouts for those in Involuntary Layoffs.
- Low raise pools.
I think that the raise pools across the years are too low. It hasn't kept pace with the PNW cost of living. Also based on the figures provided by speea it seems that profs and techs will be making less than IAM persons with similar YoE (after discounting the years spent in college).
I'd like to see an additional 2% increase in each year (after the 3% catch up) to bring the base comp closer to the TC of other companies.
I have already voted NO on the current offer, but until these points are improved on in future offers I will continue to vote NO. I can be flexible in how to address these points but they need to be addressed.
I hope this helps someone come to a decision or helps someone who voted YES understand their coworkers decisions.