Boeing violated labor law during talks with engineers' union

Boeing Co. violated labor law during contract talks with its engineers' union, a National Labor Relations Board judge has ruled.

NLRB Administrative Law Judge Dickie Montemayor on Thursday ordered Boeing to provide wage rates, regional salary information and productivity data from various company locations to the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace.

Boeing also must provide notice of the ruling to all the employees whose collective bargaining rights were violated.

The order stemmed from an unfair labor practice charge filed during 2012 contract negotiations with the engineers' union. The judge ruled the union's formal data request during negotiations sought relevant information because of statements made by Boeing Vice President of Engineering Mike Delaney at the negotiation table and to the news media.

"The information sought clearly had a bearing on the bargaining process," Montemayor wrote. The company's "failure to provide requested information undermined and tainted the bargaining process."

A Boeing spokesman did not immediately respond for comment Monday.

Union Executive Director Ray Goforth called the judge's ruling "a complete repudiation of every argument Boeing proffered. The long and difficult negotiations we had in 2012-2013 were a direct result of Boeing engaging in illegal intimidation of employees in the workplace and these illegal tactics at the bargaining table."

In May, Boeing was found guilty of intimidating engineering union members through the use of surveillance during the same contract negotiations.

"This pattern of disdain toward the workforce and the laws that protect those workers should worry everyone who is a stakeholder in The Boeing Co.," Goforth said. "This lawless behavior is not helpful."

A hearing on the charge was held in February, more than one year after the original filing and when new contracts between Boeing and the union were approved by union members.

SPEEA represents 26,560 aerospace professionals at Boeing in the Pacific Northwest; Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kan.; and Triumph Composite Systems Inc. in Spokane, Wash.

Boeing makes parts for and assembles the 787 Dreamliner in North Charleston. The local plant is not unionized.