Boeing workers strike after rejecting contract [Video]

Thousands of Boeing factory workers in the United States walked off the job Friday after voting overwhelmingly to reject a contract with the embattled aviation giant, its first strike in 16 years.

Union leaders called for the strike to start just after midnight on Friday (0700 GMT), hours after hourly workers in the Seattle region in the Pacific Northwest spurned the tentative contract with a vote of 94.6 percent and to strike with 96 percent.

A strike will shutter two major plane assembly plants for the 737 MAX and 777 in the Puget Sound region and sidelines some 33,000 workers, further delaying the financially stressed company’s turnaround efforts.

“Our members spoke loud and clear tonight,” said Jon Holden, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751, after the vote.

“We strike at midnight.”

Picketers were out in front of the Renton plant — where Boeing’s flagship 737 Max aircraft is …