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About 33,000 union members at Boeing began walking off work on Friday after overwhelmingly rejecting a proposed four-year contract with the struggling plane maker.

The strike, Boeing’s first in 16 years, will virtually halt commercial aircraft production at one of America’s largest manufacturing giants and its largest exporter, potentially dealing a blow to the U.S. economy. Depending on the length of the strike, it could cause problems for nearly 10,000 Boeing (BA) suppliers located in all 50 U.S. states.

The company employs a total of 150,000 people in the United States and estimates its annual contribution to the American economy at $79 billion, supporting 1.6 million jobs directly and indirectly.

The rejected deal, which the leadership of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) union had described as the best it had ever negotiated with Boeing, would have provided for salary increases of at least 25 percent over the term of the deal.

It also increased job security for union members because Boeing had pledged to build its next commercial jetliner — the construction of which has not yet been announced — at a union plant. Without a contract containing that clause, Boeing could choose to build the plane at a nonunion plant.

But 95 percent of IAM union members voted against the deal. In a separate vote, 96 percent voted for a strike, easily exceeding the two-thirds majority required for a strike. The strike began at 11:59 p.m. PT on Thursday, or 2:59 a.m. ET on Friday.

“This is about fighting for our future,” said Jon Holden, president of the largest IAM union at Boeing, as he announced the vote. “We will return to the bargaining table whenever we can to advance the issues our members believe are important.”

Boeing said it was committed to returning to the negotiating table to reach a new agreement.

“The message was clear that the tentative agreement we reached with IAM leadership was not acceptable to members,” it said in a statement. “We remain committed to resetting our relationships with our employees and the union.”

Previous concessions and a series of problems at Boeing, including layoffs and the shifting of some work from a union assembly plant to the company’s only non-union factory, had sparked widespread resentment against the company, so the vote against the contract was expected despite the content of the offer.

Kelly Ortberg, Boeing’s new CEO, acknowledged earlier this week that members were angry about the previous contract terms, but urged union members to overlook that and vote for the deal.

“I know the response to our tentative agreement with the IAM has been passionate,” he wrote to staff. “I understand and respect that passion, but I ask that you do not give up the opportunity to secure our shared future because of the frustrations of the past.”

Ortberg said in his first week on the job last month that he wanted to “reset our relationship with the union.” Holden told CNN late last month that he hadn’t noticed a change in negotiating strategy since Ortberg took over as chief. But on Thursday night he said he didn’t necessarily blame the company’s new boss for the strike.

“It’s hard to make up for 16 years,” he said. “It’s really about what’s happened to our members because of the way the company has been run for almost 20 years.”

Despite years of problems, Boeing is still an important part of the US economy. The strike is just the latest major blow to the company.

Over the past five years, Boeing has struggled with countless problems, some tragic and many embarrassing, most of which have had devastating financial consequences.

Two fatal crashes of the 737 Max, one in October 2018 and the other in March 2019, killed 346 people and led to a 20-month grounding of Boeing’s best-selling aircraft and a halt to deliveries to fix a design flaw linked to the crashes.

Boeing then faced a host of other questions about the quality and safety of its planes. That criticism was compounded after a door stopper ripped off an Alaska Airlines 737 Max shortly after takeoff on January 5. Although no one was killed or seriously injured, the incident sparked numerous federal investigations, one of which found that the plane had left a Boeing factory without the four screws needed to hold the door stopper in place.

Boeing has since agreed to plead guilty to misleading the Federal Aviation Administration during the initial investigation into the Max. As part of its agreement with the U.S. Justice Department, the company must operate under the supervision of a court-appointed overseer.

A strike would have no impact on private travel. Boeing planes that have already been delivered to airlines and are currently in service around the world would continue to fly. However, the strike would lead to a delay in the delivery of the jets promised to airlines, thereby depriving Boeing of its main source of income.

But the company has not reported an annual profit since 2018 and has accumulated cumulative operating losses of more than $33 billion through the second quarter of this year. In addition, its credit rating has been downgraded to near “junk” status. Even before the strike, the company was not expected to return to profitability in the near future due to limited production output.

Boeing shares have lost more than 60 percent of their value over the past five years, and more than 30 percent since the Alaska Air incident earlier this year.

Holden had called the tentative agreement on Sunday “the best contract we have negotiated in our history,” but the overwhelming backlash against the deal prompted him to change his statement in recent days.

Holden told members in a message Tuesday that union leadership had recommended workers accept the deal because it was the best that could be negotiated without a strike.

“We recommended acceptance because we cannot guarantee that we can achieve more with a strike,” he said in that message. “But that is your decision and a decision that we will protect and support no matter what happens. We have achieved everything we could in negotiations without a strike occurring. The members must take responsibility from now on.”

At a press conference after the votes were announced, Holden denied that union leadership had failed to represent the interests of its members when it recommended a deal that was later overwhelmingly rejected.

“Our members have the final say. And we’ve put it in their hands. That’s exactly how it should be,” he said. “Our members spoke loudly and clearly tonight. I’m proud of our members. I’m proud of them for standing up and fighting for more, for each other, for their families, for the community. There’s a lot at stake here for our members.”

Holden said it was difficult to pinpoint a single reason why members voted against the deal, but acknowledged that workers wanted more job security, more leisure time and higher wages to compensate for rising prices during a period of high inflation in recent years.

Referring to the loss of the traditional pension plan in recent contracts, he said: “I know that this wound has not yet healed for many members.”

“We’ve had 10 years of stagnant wages,” Holden said. “We’ve had the same hours for over 30 years and our members deserve a fair work-life balance.”

The last strike at Boeing was in 2008 and lasted 57 days. Holden said members are prepared to “stay out” as long as it takes this time to get a better deal.

The American labor movement has been active over the past year, especially as inflation weighed on workers’ wages. According to a CNN analysis, nearly a million union members won immediate wage increases of 10% or more from late 2022 to late 2023.

The strikes at all three unionized U.S. automakers began almost exactly a year ago and lasted seven weeks. It was the longest auto strike in 25 years. That motivated Boeing workers to take action, Holden said.

“There have been many great successes in the labor movement, and I think that momentum has helped us and given confidence to our members,” he said. “We certainly saw that as something to strive for, too. So we hope to continue the success of the labor movement with our action here tonight.”

This story has been updated with additional information.