As its engineers vote on a four-year contract, Boeing's leadership is looking for an end to the recurrent strife that idled its factories for nearly two months and pushed back deliveries 10 weeks or more.

Unlike machinists, who ended the strike in a single day at the polls, the 21,000 members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (Speea) vote by mail. Ballots are to be counted on Dec. 1 on a contract that will give them a 20% pay increase, wider choice in healthcare plans, a boost in pension benefits and Boeing's pledge of consultation on outsourced work. The contract period is to begin Dec. 2 and extend to Oct. 6, 2012.

The Speea talks began Oct. 29, two days after the 27,000 members of the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) voted to return to work. Boeing and the engineers soon reached agreement on outsourcing -- the issue that most riled machinists -- but pay was a hurdle. Union negotiators called for a symbolic strike vote hours before an agreement was reached on Nov. 14.

The IAM agreed to extend its contract to four years and the engineers are being asked to do the same. An extra year of union peace helps the aircraft maker, its suppliers and customers. But Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Scott Carson acknowledges the company's bridge to labor is shaky.

"If we can't find a way to work together to resolve these key issues long before we get into a labor negotiation, we have the ability to damage this industry, and that would be a crying shame to me," Carson commented in an interview at the Aviation Week/Credit Suisse Finance Conference in New York Nov. 19-20.

With memories of a 2005 machinist strike in mind, Carson began talking to union leaders the week he became CEO in September 2006 to build a "trust" he hoped would avoid a repeat this year. Instead, the machinists struck for twice as long.

"The fact that we didn't make it tells me that you can't build that kind of trust in just a year or two," he says. "It's going to take longer. That means we have to be much more assertive in our interest in building this trust and it tells the union the same thing. We have to reach out to each other and truly understand the businesses environments that we're working in."

As machinists in IAM Local 751 returned to work, President Tom Wroblewski complained that Boeing's "management is continuing to create issues/obstacles" for members on the shop floor.

First up in the negotiating rounds, machinists have been far more likely to strike than the engineers. They've done so in three of the last four negotiating rounds. But the accords they reach also help set the stage for Speea, whose members include engineers and technical workers.

Speea Executive Director Ray Goforth says the proposed contract he is recommending represents "lots of hard work by all parties. It's gratifying that we could reach an agreement."