Boeing factory workers strike for first time since 2008 after overwhelmingly rejecting contract

Boeing’s factory workers walked off the job after midnight on Friday, halting production of the company’s bestselling airplanes after staff overwhelmingly rejected a new labor contract.

It’s a costly development for the manufacturer that has struggled to ramp up production and restore its reputation following safety crises.

Workers in the Seattle area and in Oregon voted 94.6% against a tentative agreement that Boeing and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers unveiled Sunday. The workers voted 96% in favor of a strike, far more than the two-thirds vote required for a work stoppage.

“We strike at midnight,” said IAM District 751 President Jon Holden at a news conference where he announced the vote’s results. He characterized it as an “unfair labor practice strike,” alleging that factory workers had experienced “discriminatory conduct, coercive questioning, unlawful surveillance and we had unlawful promise of benefits.”