SEATTLE-
Boeing factory workers on the U.S. West Coast are walking out after 96% voted in favor of a strike on Thursday, halting production of the planemaker’s best-selling aircraft as the company grapples with chronic production delays and mounting debt.
The first strike since 2008 begins at midnight Pacific time on Friday, just weeks after new CEO Kelly Ortberg was appointed in August to help restore confidence in the planemaker after a door panel on a nearly new 737 MAX plane ripped off in mid-air in January.
About 30,000 workers who produce the Boeing 737 MAX and other jetliners in the Seattle and Portland regions voted on their first full-scale contract in 16 years.
