On his first day on the job as the executive director of the union representing nearly 20,000 Puget Sound-area Boeing engineers and technical workers, Ray Goforth paid a courtesy call on Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group President Scott Carson and his human resources lieutenant, Doug Kight.

If what Goforth says they told him is more than just posturing, Boeing and one of its biggest unions, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, could have a tough go this fall as they try to negotiate a new contract.

“Before I took this job, I’d been told that relations with SPEEA and Boeing were pretty darned strained, and I had hoped that could be fixed,” said Goforth, now just six weeks into his tenure as SPEEA’s chief administrator. “But I learned that isn’t likely going to happen easily.”

Those strained relations come at critical times both for Boeing and its engineering and technical workers’ union. Boeing is red-faced from repeated delays in the delivery date of the first of its revolutionary 787 Dreamliners, and at the same time the company is still shell-shocked from its loss to a consortium of Northrop Grumman and Airbus parent EADS of a $35 billion contract to build 179 Air Force aerial refueling tankers.

The union itself is still in recovery from months of turmoil that began with the ouster of Goforth’s predecessor, Charles Bofferding, from the post he had held for 16 years. Bofferding’s removal led to board recall elections and a power struggle within the union’s hierarchy.

Goforth came to his new job after 10 years as a union representative with a sister engineering local to SPEEA, IFPTE Local 17.

Goforth, along with the union’s board and negotiating team faces the job of healing wounds within the union and presenting a united front to Boeing in formal negotiations set to begin in October.

Goforth recently talked with The News Tribune about his job, Boeing and his plans for the next year.

You say Boeing is hostile to SPEEA. Give me some examples.

Boeing corporate has launched a decertification campaign against SPEEA. In Wichita last year, a company campaign stripped 900 members of SPEEA representation. And in Utah they launched a similar campaign. That backfired and ended up doubling the size of the unit. In retaliation, Boeing is trying to strip those Utah workers out of the Puget Sound contract. Boeing corporate has also launched a drive to decertify the unit in Palmdale, Calif.

What happened when you met with Boeing’s Carson and Kight?

Mr. Carson explained that he wanted to get rid of all unions at Boeing and that he intended to continue to support the efforts to bust the bargaining units where they could. It was disappointing. I appreciated the candor. It did supply some clarity on these problems. I went into this hoping that we could partner to solve these problems, but the answer was “no.”

What did they tell you about their immediate goals for this year’s negotiations?

They shared their plans to eliminate the pension plan for all new hires and to make negative changes to the medical plan that will drastically shift costs onto the employees. They seemed to be setting us up for what could be a cataclysmic conflict this fall.

But isn’t it their job to cut costs and improve the company’s bottom line?

Their stance on the pension plan came after the news that Boeing’s pension plan is overfunded by $5 billion, and they are enjoying very healthy profits so this is not like the auto industry where they’re facing some tough problems that call for some creative solutions. These aren’t things that they needed to keep the business healthy. These are things that they simply want.

You’ve been meeting with your members at lunchtime where they work. What are they telling you about the company and its latest problems?

If I wanted to synthesize it, I’d have to say it is bewilderment that the company that in many ways that they love – that the people who run the company are intent on running it into a ditch and won’t listen to the people that really do the work. My members are telling me we’re going to have even more delays.

And what do your members see as the main problem?

Within Boeing management there’s an almost religious belief right now that this offshoring is good, and when you point out the problems, it’s seen almost as a challenge to the fundamental belief tenant rather than a discrete problem to be fixed.

What’s your hope for the upcoming negotiations?

Hopefully we will find solutions to these problems that are peaceful and quiet and professional. Thus far, Boeing corporate has found no interest in finding solutions, so we’ve begun to prepare our membership for very tough negotiations and possible adverse labor actions.

John Gillie: 253-597-8663

blogs.thenewstribune.com/business

Ray Goforth

Title: Executive director, Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace

Age: 40

Family: Wife and three kids, ages 3, 6 and 10

Education: The Evergreen State College, bachelor’s degree in political economy; University of Washington School of Law, graduated, but didn’t take the bar exam and never practiced.

Home: Auburn

Work history: Union representative, IFPTE Local 17 for 10 years; law clerk, Washington Attorney General’s Office; worker, Government Accountability Project.