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The Boeing Company, whose order books are bulging with demand for its planes, was hit by its second major strike in three years early Saturday, when the union that represents 27,000 machinists in Washington State, Oregon and Kansas walked off the job.

The union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said its members struck Boeing at 3:01 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time after last-minute talks, held in Florida, failed to bring an agreement. No new talks were scheduled.

Boeing said that its plants would remain open during the strike and that employees who were not members of the machinists union were expected to come to work. The company said it would build airplanes during the walkout.

Talks broke down over a variety of issues, including pay, pensions and job security, a key point for the machinists, who have watched Boeing send work on its planes to other companies in the United States and overseas.

Workers, some waving American flags, began to walk picket lines as soon as the strike was called, although its impact would not be fully felt until Monday.

If the strike goes on for more than two weeks, union members will begin drawing $150 a week in strike pay. The typical pay for a union member is $27 an hour, or about $56,000 a year before overtime and bonuses.

The strike was Boeing's second in its last two sets of contract talks and the seventh since 1948, when workers walked off the job in a historic showdown with both the company and the rival Teamsters Union. Boeing workers spent a month on strike in 2005.

The latest walkout came after Boeing and the union failed to reach agreement on a new three-year contract during negotiations in Orlando, Florida, that were supervised by a U.S. government mediator. The talks moved to a hotel outside Walt Disney World, where the union was holding a national conference, from Seattle, the home of Boeing Commercial Airplanes and many of the company's production sites.

The union agreed to extend its contract 48 hours late Wednesday, though workers had voted overwhelmingly against Boeing's offer and in favor of a strike.

The president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Scott Carson, said in a statement: "Over the past two days, Boeing, the union and the U.S. government mediator worked hard in pursuing good-faith explorations of options that could lead to an agreement. Unfortunately, the differences were too great to close."

Boeing has a backlog of more than 3,600 orders valued at $263 billion in all. The majority of those aircraft are versions of the Boeing 737, a short-range plane that is the world's most popular.

Boeing, which earned a record $4.1 billion in 2007, could easily withstand a short strike. But a long walkout could cause more delays in the development of the Boeing 787, a long-range jet nicknamed the Dreamliner.

The Dreamliner is meant to be significantly more fuel-efficient than the Boeing 747, which the company has been making since 1970. But the Dreamliner has encountered problems, many of them traced to suppliers scattered from Japan to Italy, which have pushed back its delivery date more than a year.

Analysts estimate that each day the plane is delayed could cost the company $100 million.

The Dreamliner, which Boeing originally hoped to begin delivering this year, is now expected to start reaching customers in the third quarter of 2009. Boeing hopes to conduct the plane's first test flight before the end of this year.

"Despite meeting late into the night and throughout the day, continued contract talks with the Boeing Company did not address our issues," the union's district president, Tom Wroblewski, told members in an e-mail message. "If the company wants to talk, they have my number," he added. "They can reach me on the picket line. "

When the union agreed Wednesday to extend its contract, workers had already voted 87 percent in favor of a strike and 80 percent against Boeing's last contract offer.

Last week, Boeing posted what it called its best and final offer on its Web site and recessed talks to let workers consider the proposal over the weekend.

The terms of the proposed three-year contract include an 11 percent raise, up from an earlier offer of 9 percent, for the average machinist. Boeing also proposed an increase in pension financing, as well as having workers take on more of their health care expenses.

The union has pushed for a 13 percent raise and richer pensions. It wants stronger contract language on job security and is balking at higher medical expenses.

By Micheline Maynard,  iht. com