SPEEA, IFPTE Meets with DOT Secretary Buttigieg, NTSB Chair Homendy

(l-r) Faraz Khan, Rich Plunkett, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Matt Biggs, and Brian Kildee.

SPEEA/IFPTE Local 2001 Director of Strategic Development, Rich Plunkett, along with Matt Biggs, Faraz Khan, and Brian Kildee from the International, met this week with Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg, and National Transportation Safety Board Chair, Jennifer Homendy. The meetings, which occurred in Washington, DC on Tuesday, were intended to brief the two transportation policy leaders on SPEEA’s efforts to encourage The Boeing Company to abandon their so-called Union containment policy. 

Plunkett, who is a member of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Organization Designation Authorization Expert Panel, commented on this week’s meetings:  “These meetings were an opportunity for SPEEA to brief the DOT and the NTSB on the direct link between Boeing’s deplorable Union containment policy and its chilling effect on the very workers who are tasked with identifying and fixing safety issues involving airplane manufacturing.”  IFPTE president Biggs also commented, saying that, “the meetings this week were very productive and we are confident that both Secretary Buttigieg and Chair Homeday clearly understood that Boeing’s posture toward their workers needs an immediate course correction.” 

Learn more about the FAA panel’s recommendations here.