As per Susan Diesenhouse of Chicago Tribune, Chicago-based Boeing Co., flooded with orders for its 787 Dreamliner commercial jet, now must navigate a potentially crippling work stoppage.

Just after midnight Friday, the 18,500 machinists who make parts and assemble planes for Boeing walked out, halting operations at one of the world's two largest makers of commercial planes.

The strike comes at a particularly inopportune time for the company, which is locked in a battle for market share dominance with Airbus, its European archrival. Boeing has won several big orders for the 787 in the past six months, and a long, disruptive strike could slow momentum.

A significant majority--86 percent--of workers in Seattle, Wichita, Kan., and Portland, Ore., who belong to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers voted to reject Boeing's final contract offer.

The workers want to maintain their current level of benefits, but the company asked them to accept cuts in pensions, health-care benefits and job security, said union spokeswoman Connie Kelliher in Seattle.

A Boeing spokesman countered that the company had made what it considers an attractive, competitive offer of approximately $15,400 in extra pay and benefits per worker over the three-year term of the contract.

Boeing, also a major defense contractor, is striving to regain the title of world's top aircraft supplier, which it ceded to Airbus in 2003.

The company has a strong balance sheet and a fistful of future orders. In the second quarter, it had revenue of $15 billion, up 15 percent from the same period a year earlier, and an operating margin of 5.4 percent, up from 4.9 percent in 2004. The company expects to deliver 320 planes in 2005, spokesman Charles Bickers said.

"We've given concessions, but if we accept more of them in good times, what will the company ask from us in bad times?" said Kelliher.

"Our employees helped us in some of the worst times in the aviation industry," Bickers said. In response to that help, he said, "Last year, we added 7,000 jobs in the Seattle area and put in place a financial incentive plan with union input to link our employees to the company's financial success."

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