The Boeing 787 Dreamliner sits outside the Boeing assembly plant in Everett, Washington, Boeing workers have ended their eight-week strike. - file

Boeing Company production workers have begun returning to the factories where they build jetliners after voting to end an eight-week strike that clipped profits and stalled deliveries by the world's Number two commercial airplane maker.

Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers went on strike September 6, costing Boeing an estimated US$100 million a day in deferred revenue and production delays on the company's highly anticipated next-generation passenger jet.

The workers ratified a new contract with Boeing on Saturday, and third-shift workers began returning to factories Sunday night.

Spreading the wealth

Members of the union - which represents about 27,000 workers at plants in Washington state, Oregon and Kansas - voted about 74 per cent in favour of the proposal, five days after the two sides tentatively agreed to the deal and union leaders recommended its approval.

"This contract gives the workers at Boeing an opportunity to share in the extraordinary success this company has achieved over the past several years," Mark Blondin, the union's aerospace coordinator and chief negotiator, said in a union news release.

"It also recognises the need to act, with foresight, to protect the next generation of aerospace jobs.

These members helped make Boeing the company it is today, and they have every right to be a part of its future," he said.

Benefits

The union has said the contract protects more than 5,000 factory jobs, prevents the outsourcing of certain positions and preserves health care benefits.

It also promises pay increases over four years rather than three, as outlined in earlier offers.

The union members, including electricians, painters, mechanics and other production workers, lost an average of about US$7,000 in base pay during the strike. They had rejected earlier proposals by the company, headquartered in Chicago.

It was the union's fourth strike against Boeing in two decades and its longest since 1995.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers staged strikes against Boeing for 24 days in 2005; 69 days in 1995; and 48 days in 1989.

"We're looking forward to having our team back together to resume the work of building airplanes for our customers," Scott Carson, Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and chief executive, said in a statement earlier. "This new contract addresses the union's job security issues while enabling Boeing to retain the flexibility needed to run the business ... and allows us to remain competitive."

Surging demand

The walkout came amid surging demand for Boeing's commercial jetliners, which include 737s, 747s, 767s and 777s.

Chicago-based Boeing, which ranks as the world's second-largest commercial airplane maker after Europe's Airbus, has said its order backlog has swollen to a record $349 billion in value.

The strike also further postponed the delivery of Boeing's long-awaited 787 jetliner, which has already been delayed three times, and other commercial planes.

- Ap