Boeing machinists go on strike amid an order backlog

27,000 walk out in Washington, Oregon, Kansas

Scott Green and his son, 3-year-old Joshua, walked the picket line outside Boeing's plant in Everett, Wash. (Robert Giroux/Getty Images)

NEW YORK - The Boeing Co., whose order books are bulging with demand for its planes, was hit by its second major strike in three years early yesterday, when the union that represents 27,000 machinists in Washington state, Oregon, and Kansas walked off the job.

The union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said its members went on strike at 3:01 a.m. after last-minute talks failed to bring an accord. No new talks were scheduled.

Boeing said its plants would remain open during the strike and employees who were not members of the machinists union were expected to come to work. The company said it would build airplanes during the walkout.

Talks broke down over several issues, including pay, pensions, and job security, a key point for the machinists, who have watched Boeing send work on its planes to other companies.

Workers began to walk picket lines as soon as the strike was called, although its impact will not be fully felt until tomorrow.

If the strike goes on for more than two weeks, union members will begin drawing $150 a week in strike pay.

The typical pay for a union member is $27 an hour, or about $56,000 a year before overtime and bonuses.

The strike was Boeing's second in its last two sets of contract talks and the seventh since 1948. Boeing workers spent a month on strike in 2005.

The latest walkout occurred after Boeing and the union failed to reach agreement on a new three-year contract during negotiations in Orlando, Fla., that were supervised by a federal mediator.

The talks moved to a hotel outside Walt Disney World, where the union was holding a national conference, from Seattle, the home of Boeing Commercial Airplanes and many of the company's production sites.

The union agreed to extend its contract 48 hours late Wednesday.

The president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Scott E. Carson, said in a statement: "The differences were too great to close."

Boeing has a backlog of more than 3,600 orders valued at $263 billion.

The majority of those aircraft are versions of the Boeing 737, a short-range plane that is the world's most popular.

Boeing, which earned a record $4.1 billion in 2007, could easily withstand a short strike. But a long walkout could cause more delays in the development of the Boeing 787, a long-range jet nicknamed the Dreamliner.

The Dreamliner is meant to be significantly more fuel-efficient than the Boeing 747, which the company has been making since 1970.

But the Dreamliner has encountered problems, which have pushed back its delivery date more than a year.

Analysts estimate that each day the plane is delayed could cost the company $100 million.

"Talks with the Boeing Co. did not address our issues," the union's district president, Tom Wroblewski, told members in an e-mail. "If the company wants to talk, they have my number." When the union agreed Wednesday to extend its contract, workers had voted 87 percent in favor of a strike and 80 percent against Boeing's last contract offer.

Last week, Boeing posted what it called its best and final offer on its website and recessed talks to let workers consider the proposal over the Labor Day weekend.