SPEEA Holds Its Annual Convention and Leadership Conference

SEATAC, Wash. -- IFPTE International President Matt Biggs praised the political advocacy done by SPEEA this year and pledged that the union’s largest Local will have support during contract talks with Spirit AeroSystems this year and Boeing in 2026. 

“We all saw what they did with the Fire Fighters,” Biggs said. “Boeing’s probably done you a favor in that sense, with the Fire Fighters. They’ve shown you what their plans are for the Machinists and SPEEA, unfortunately.”

Biggs was the final speaker at this year’s SPEEA Annual Convention and Leadership Conference, which was held June 7-8 near Seattle. More than 100 SPEEA officers and Council Reps from Washington, Kansas, Oregon, California, and Utah attended.  

Biggs praised the work of SPEEA’s Legislative & Political Action Committee, which had the support of both SPEEA and IFPTE staff, for the work they did to secure $60 million in federal funding for aerospace workforce development in the recently approved Federal Aviation Administration re-authorization bill. 

“This is a new thing and it didn’t come about by accident,” Biggs said. “You guys went and asked for this money for workforce development in aerospace, and you got it.” It’s particularly noteworthy that the bill includes provisions that allow unions to apply for the federal funds, he said. “That was hard to do,” Biggs said. “You’ve got to get a bipartisan bill, and there was a lot of give and take You guys got that done.” 

Biggs urged SPEEA’s officers, reps, and staff to continue building “round-the-clock year-round membership engagement, whether you have a contract coming up or not.” 

The IFPTE president praised the union for its support of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local I-66 during the four weeks that it was locked out by Boeing and said SPEEA will have the support of all IFPTE locals in its upcoming negotiations. 

Biggs said IFPTE leaders are committed to growing the union, noting that the union’s executive board has approved a significant investment in organizing new bargaining units. “We’re going to build SPEEA’s ranks and build the IFPTE’s ranks,” he said. “There’s a lot of opportunities for that now and we need to take advantage of that.” 

SPEEA represents more than 19,000 engineers, scientists, technical workers and pilots at Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems. It is affiliated as Local 2001 of the IFPTE.