On February 9, 2000, more than 17,000 engineers and technicians from the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) walked out of Boeing plants across the country. This was the first major strike for the engineers' organization, which formed in Seattle in 1944. After the 40-day standoff, a mediated contract was approved with significant SPEEA gains on pay increases and benefits, but tensions continued between the company and SPEEA over the next decade and Boeing outsourced much of the design for its next major plane, the 787.

This purple sign used by one of the engineers in the strike claims "No Nerds No Birds" in yellow and white letters, a popular slogan used during the strike.

Caption information source: "SPEEA Union (Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace)," by Ross Rieder, HistoryLink.org Essay 2211.
Caption information source: "Did the Boeing Engineers' Strike of 2000 Succeed in the Long Run?" by Ashley Gross, KNXK Public Radio, January 10, 2013, retrieved from https://www.knkx.org/business/2013-01-10/did-the-boeing-engineers-strike-of-2000-succeed-in-the-long-run.