Boeing machinists challenge vote on new labour contract

[SEATTLE] Some Boeing Co machinists plan to push for a recount or even a new vote on their latest labour contract with the aircraft maker, possibly extending a long-running drama over which state will get to work on Boeing's new 777X jet.

But union leaders said there would need to be a reason to take such a step and that no formal request for action had been made. "The vote is over and it was counted under the eyes of the members," said R Thomas Buffenbarger, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), which represents the Boeing machinists and other workers in the United States and Canada.

The issue appeared decided late last Friday when local machinists voted very narrowly in favour of the contract, apparently securing thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of economic activity for Washington state, but at the cost of union members' defined-benefit pensions.