[Source: Reuters]

Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab factory workers voted to reject a contract offer and continue a more than five-week strike on Wednesday, in a blow to new CEO Kelly Ortberg’s plan to shore up the finances of the struggling planemaker.

The vote was 64% in opposition to the deal, which offered a 35% rise in wages over four years, in a major setback for Ortberg who took the top job in August on a pledge to work more closely with factory workers than his predecessors.

The rejection of Boeing’s offer, which comes after 95% of workers voted against a first contract last month, reflects years of resentment from workers who felt cheated by the company in talks a decade ago and deepens a financial crisis.

After the vote, union leaders said they were ready to immediately resume negotiations with Boeing on the first new contract since 2014, when the company used the threat of moving production of the new version of the 777 out of the region to push through a deal that ended traditional pensions.

The union has been seeking a 40% pay rise and the return of the defined-benefit pension.

Boeing factory workers were also venting frustration after a decade when their wages have lagged inflation while the planemaker spent tens of billions of dollars on share buybacks and paid out record executive bonuses.

“This membership has gone through a lot … there are some deep wounds,” the union’s lead contract negotiator Jon Holden told reporters after the vote. “I want to get back to the table. Boeing needs to come to the table as well. Hopefully, we can have some fruitful discussions with the company, and Mr. Ortberg, to try and resolve this.”

Boeing said it did not have an immediate comment on the vote.

More than 30,000 machinists downed tools in Boeing’s West Coast factories on Sept. 13, halting production of the best-selling 737 MAX and 767 and 777 wide-body programs.

Time is running out for Boeing, historically the largest U.S. exporter, and its biggest union to reach a deal before the presidential election on Nov. 5.

With Boeing and IAM at a stalemate earlier this month, acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su helped get the latest offer presented for a vote after attending in-person talks with both parties in Seattle last week.

Holden said after the union vote that he would reach out to the White House to see if the union could get more assistance negotiating with Boeing, which is the largest customer for a U.S. aerospace supply chain already facing critical financial pressure.

“After the first contract offer was rejected, the honeymoon was over on the labor reset. This further validates that,” said Scott Hamilton, an aviation consultant.

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