SPEEA's WTPU Unit Prepares for Negotiations with Spirit AeroSystems

SPEEA Contract Administrator Susanne Murphy briefs the Wichita Technical & Professional Unit’s Contract Action Team on our union’s negotiation process.

SPEEA’s Wichita Technical and Professional Unit – or WTPU -- is moving forward in its preparations for upcoming contract negotiations with management at Spirit AeroSystems.

Council Reps in Wichita in August elected five people to serve on the WTPU bargaining team: Patti Brinkmeyer, Emily Forest, Wes Gardner, James Hatfield, and Cathy Yeager.

In addition, the WTPU Contract Action Team – made up of activists from among the ranks of dues-paying SPEEA members in Wichita -- has begun meeting to discuss ways to support negotiations.

SPEEA/IFPTE Local 2001 represents some 1,600 technical workers and other professionals at Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kan. Their current contract expires Jan. 31, 2026.

Boeing has announced plans to buy back Spirit – which was spun off from Boeing in 2005 – in a $4.7 billion deal that’s now expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025.