Workers at Boeing's US West Coast factories are set to walk out after 96% of workers voted on Thursday to strike, halting production of the planemaker's best-selling jetliner as it struggles with chronic production delays and mounting debt.
The workers' first strike since 2008 is scheduled to begin at midnight Pacific time on Friday.
This came just weeks after new CEO Kelly Ortberg was hired in August to restore confidence in the plane maker after a door panel on a nearly new 737 Max jet blew off in mid-air in January.
About 30,000 workers in the Seattle and Portland areas who make Boeing Co's 737 Max and other jets voted on the company's first full contract in 16 years.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) set out complex rules that required at least two-thirds of union members to vote in favor of striking and rejecting a contract.
Boeing workers voted 96% in favor of striking and 94.6% against the agreement.
The contract included a 25 percent increase in prevailing wages, a $3,000 signing bonus and a commitment to build Boeing's next generation commercial jetliner in the Seattle area, provided the project began within the four-year contract period.
IAM leadership urged members to accept the deal last Sunday, but many workers reacted angrily, insisting on their original demand of a 40 percent pay increase and lamenting the loss of their annual bonus.
Ortberg sent a letter to workers on Wednesday urging them to approve the agreement.
Some workers were already preparing to take to the picket line that day, with one union member leaving Wednesday's rally with a sign under his arm that read, “On Strike Against Boeing.”
