SEATTLE (Reuters) - Members of Boeing Co.'s biggest union on Wednesday authorised their leadership to call a strike if current contract talks fail, although both sides agreed a work stoppage was unlikely.
About 98 percent of voting members agreed to sanction a strike if necessary, according to leaders of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents some 48,000 of Boeing's 211,000 employees.
The move, which had been expected, was seen as a formality as Boeing and the union step up negotiations leading to the Sept. 2 expiration of the current four-year pact. Formal bargaining began about three weeks ago, and the two sides will begin intense, round-the-clock talks on Aug. 16.
Both sides have said they expect to avoid a repeat of the 1995 negotiations, marred by a 69-day strike that halted airplane construction at the aerospace giant.
``We're here to negotiate a contract, not a strike,'' said Dick Schneider, the union's lead negotiator. But he said the union would not hesitate to call a strike if the two sides reach an impasse over any of the union's key issues.
``A strike really serves no one,'' Boeing spokesman Peter Conte said before the vote. ``There are no winners if there is a strike. From our point of view, with a specific focus on these negotiations, failure is not an option.''
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