Boeing's St. Louis machinists plan to strike next week

Boeing Co. machinists at a fighter- jet factory in St. Louis said they intend to go on strike June 21 unless the planemaker resumes negotiations, after the workers rejected a proposed contract this week.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers is formally notifying the Chicago-based company today of its 2,533 members' walkout plans, according to an e-mailed statement. A strike would halt production of F-15 and F-18 jets.

"There has been informal contact but no indication the company is willing to return to the table at this time," Thomas Pinski, a union spokesman, said in a telephone interview. "If there's some attempt to return to the table to address the issues, the actual walk date could be postponed."

A strike would be the second in as many months for Boeing's defense operations, following a monthlong work stoppage by workers that build C-17 military transport jets in Long Beach, California. The C-17 employees began returning to work on June 10.

The St. Louis machinists, who voted down a contract offer on June 13, object to Boeing's plan to switch new hires to a different retirement program from the current pension system. That was also a point of contention for machinists at Boeing's commercial hub in Seattle during a two-month strike in 2008.