By Scott Hamilton
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Aug. 3, 2026, © Leeham News: The quick outcome of reaching a tentative agreement between Boeing and its engineers/technicians union, SPEEA, was done in lightning speed, as contract negotiations go: just four weeks, meeting every day. By the end of July, the meetings were about 14 hours a day.
The current contract doesn’t expire until Oct. 6. Both sides praised the tentative agreement. They also praised a new atmosphere of collaboration during contract talks, rather than the historical adversarial process that dominated previous negotiations.
There are two contracts, one for each group represented by SPEEA: the engineers and the technicians. It will likely be a week or two before the tentative agreements are put to the groups for a vote.
Kelly Ortberg became CEO of The Boeing Co. in August 2024. One of his goals was to “reset” labor relations. This SPEEA contract may go a long way toward doing so. Credit: Boeing.
When Kelly Ortberg assumed the office of Boeing’s CEO in August 2024, he said one of his goals was to “reset” labor relations. The unions had been under siege since the 1997 merger between Boeing and McDonnell Douglas. CEO Jim McNerney (2005-2015) essentially declared war on the IAM 751 touch-labor union, which went on strike for 57 days in 2008.
Ortberg assumed his office with 34 days to go before 751’s contract expired. The union went on strike for 53 days. A different IAM local in St. Louis, at Boeing’s defense unit, walked the picket lines for more than 100 days this year. In between, other union contracts were agreed without strikes.
These SPEEA contract negotiations were seen as Ortberg’s make-or-break opportunity to reset labor relations.
Is this early, collaborative outcome a watershed event? Yes and no.
