The shortest Machinists strike in four decades against The Boeing Co. is over.

Just a few hours short of 28 days, the strike ended Thursday night after Machinists in the Puget Sound region, in Portland, Ore., and in Wichita, Kan., gave an 80 percent margin of victory to a new three-year contract with the company that will give them better pension benefits and freeze their health insurance costs at current levels.

Picketing immediately ended at Boeing's commercial jetliner plants in Everett and in Renton, where production of planes had been stopped since the strike began at 12:01 a.m. Sept. 2. The first Machinists were expected to be back on the job by 11 p.m. Thursday for third shift.

Because some workers have taken temporary jobs, they are not required to return to work until Oct. 12.

They had voted overwhelmingly four weeks ago - by an 86 percent margin - to walk out after rejecting the company's final offer that union leaders called "insulting."

This was the sixth strike by Machinists against Boeing since 1948. They were out for 69 days in 1995 and 48 days in 1989. The shortest strike was 19 days in 1965.

Many Machinists, as well as industry analysts, had expected this strike would last much longer.

But last Friday, Alan Mulally, chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, met secretly in Washington, D.C. ,with union leaders to try and bring the strike to a quick end. In order to get back to bulding aiplanes again for customers that need them, the company gave ground on several key issues and the union leadership recommended that Boeing's revised offer be accepted.

"It was an amazing turnaround in the last week," said David Achman, who works on the F/A-22 jet fighter program at Boeing's Developmental Center near Boeing Field. He voted Thursday afternoon at the nearby Machinists union headquarters to accept the contract.

Afterwards, he went up to Mark Blondin, union president, and shook his hand, telling Blondin how much he appreciated his work to get the revised offer out of Boeing.

"Our members spoke out and held the line," Blondin said a few minutes later in an interview. He is president of District 751 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

"They did the heavy lifting and sent the company a strong message," Blondin said of the union's membership.

The IAM represents about 18,400 workers, including about 16,500 in the Puget Sound area.

"It's not all that we wanted, but it's about compromise,"Jon Leach, a Machinists at Boeing's Auburn fabrication plant, said after he voted to accept the contract. "I'm not going to get everything I wanted, and the company is not going to get everything it wanted."

Even though Leach is only 48 years old and retirement is still a ways off, he said a better pension was one of the hot-button contract issues for him.

But not everyone was in favor of the revised deal that was struck by Mulally and Blondin a week ago.

One of the most outspoken against the contract has been David Clay, an Everett toolmaker and union activist. He had been urging Machinists to reject the contract again and hold out for a better deal.

"We made them go back and bring back a better contract offer. We must do it again," Clay said in an e-mail to Machinists.

At the union hall near Boeing's plant in Everett, where the company builds its widebody 747, 767 and 777 jetliners, several Machinists who were against the contract showed up Thursday with signs urging that it be rejected.

They were asked to leave union property and stand on a nearby sidewalk with their signs, according to a Machinists who was there to vote.

"The union hall property is supposed to be neutral," explained this Machinists, who did not want his name used. He voted in favor of the contract.

"It's a good contract, a good deal for us," he said.

Boeing workers represented by the Machinists union average 49 years of age and are paid an average of $59,000 a year.

Going into the contract talks this summer, the union had said its top issue was a better pension for workers, followed closely by job security and holding the line on health care insurance payments by workers.

In its revised offer, Boeing raised the pension multiplier from $66 in its previous final offer that was rejected to $70 a month for each year of service. It also agreed to maintain existing health care plans under the same cost provisions of the 2002-05 contract. Workers will receive an 8 percent ratification bonus, or about $5,200 per employee. They also will receive $3,000 lump sums in each of the last two years of the contract, for a total of $6,000.

In 2002, the union voted by a wide margin to reject the company's three-year contract proposal, but could not muster the two-thirds vote needed for a strike. Back then, the industry was in its worst-ever downturn after the 9/11 terror attacks, and Boeing was cutting thousands of commercial jobs.

Now, the industry is experiencing a strong recovery, especially in Europe and Asia. Boeing is boosting production rates as airlines, especially in Europe and Asia, want new plans again.

Industry analysts had predicted a month-long strike would delay the delivery of about 30 planes.

The revised offer eliminated the option of rolling the lump sum payments into Boeing's VIP savings plan and receiving company matching contributions. It also eliminated a proposed general wage increase and the proposed annual incentive pay program. Workers will get cost-of-living wage adjustments.

"The total cost to Boeing is similar to the previous contract offer and meets our definition of a reasonable settlement," Mulally said last Sunday in an e-mail to Boeing managers. "It also supports our plan for making continued quality and productivity improvements, which we all know is the key to being competitive and winning new business. And getting an agreement sooner rather than later is the right thing to do for our employees, customers, investors and our communities."

The revised offer eliminated three demands in the previous final offer that Blondin had said were unacceptable to the union's membership and had to be removed. Those issues involved Wichita workers, new IAM hires and machine shop operations.

Under terms of the revised offer, the 900 or so IAM workers in Wichita will receive the same economic package as those in the Puget Sound region and in Portland. Under the company's previous final offer, they would have received fewer benefits.

Boeing also backed off from its proposal to eliminate retiree medical for new hires, and it withdrew a proposal that would have allowed complex-machine operators to run more than one machine simultaneously. The union said that would have eliminated jobs.

Boeing also agreed to include language in the new contract that says suppliers and vendors will not install parts or components on airplanes on the factory floor. That was a sore point with the union after the last contract in 2002. In addition, the language in the tentative deal says the union's forklift drivers will deliver parts within the factory.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DEAL

• A pension multiplier of $70 per month per year of service.

• Maintain existing health care plans under the same cost provisions of the 2002-05 contract.

• An 8 percent ratification bonus (average of $5,200 per employee).

• A $3,000 lump-sum bonus in both year 2 and year 3 of the contract, for a total of $6,000.

• Wichita workers covered by the contract will receive the same economic package as those in the Puget Sound region.

• Seniority will be part of the selection process for team leaders on the factory floor.

• Retiree medical will stay the same as in the previous three-year contract.

• Boeing backed off a proposal to eliminate retiree medical for new IAM hires.

• Boeing withdrew its proposal for simultaneous machine operation.

• Boeing restored medical layoff benefits to six months, up from three months in previous offer.

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