Free Republic

Boeing Co. Machinists voted Thursday to strike as union members overwhelmingly rejected a three-year contract proposal their leaders had deemed "insulting." Union members voted 86 percent in favor of a strike beginning at 12:01 a.m. local time Friday. Under union rules, the contract would have been automatically ratified -- and workers would have stayed on the job -- unless two-thirds of the union members voted to strike. The strike will affect about 18,400 Machinists who assemble Boeing's commercial airplanes and some key components in the Seattle area, Gresham, Ore., and Wichita, Kan. Company officials said earlier in the week that...

SEATTLE - Boeing Co. on Tuesday presented what it called its final contract offer to more than 18,000 Machinists, whose leaders promptly urged the workers to reject the proposal and strike. A top Boeing executive warned that a strike would be devastating. In a statement posted late Tuesday on its Web site, the union said the aerospace giant was insisting on concessions and takeaways in a "corporate strategy to break the workers who have built this company." Union members will vote on the three-year offer Thursday, with the current contract set to expire Friday. "I just cannot emphasize enough what...