SEATTLE—About 33,000 union members at Boeing went on strike Friday after they overwhelmingly rejected a proposed four-year contract with the troubled aircraft manufacturer.

The strike, the first at the company in 16 years, will virtually stop commercial airplane production at Boeing, one of America’s biggest manufacturers and its largest exporter, dealing a potential blow to the U.S. economy. Depending on the length of the strike, it could cause problems for nearly 10,000 Boeing suppliers, which can be found in all 50 US states.

The company has a total of 150,000 U.S. employees, and it estimates its own annual contribution to America’s economy at $79 billion, supporting 1.6 million jobs directly and indirectly.

The rejected deal, which leadership at the International Association of Machinist (IAM) union had described as the best it’s ever negotiated with Boeing, would have given raises of at least 25 percent over the life of the deal.

It also increased job security for union members because Boeing promised to build its next commercial jet, which has yet to be announced, at a unionized plant. Without a contract including that provision, Boeing may decide to build the jet at a non-union factory.

But 95 percent of members of the IAM union voted against the deal. In a separate vote, 96 percent voted to authorize a strike, easily clearing the two-thirds threshold needed to approve a walkout. 

“This is about fighting for our future,” Jon Holden, president of the largest IAM local at Boeing, said as he announced the vote results. “We will be back at the table whenever we can get there to drive forward on the issues our members say are important.”

Boeing said it was also eager to return to the negotiating table to reach a new deal.

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

Past concessions and a series of problems at Boeing, including layoffs and the shift of some work from a unionized assembly plant to the company’s one non-union factory, had sparked widespread anger at the company. So the vote against the contract was expected, despite what was included in the offer.

Earlier this week, Kelly Ortberg, Boeing’s new CEO, had acknowledged that members had been upset over past contract terms, but he urged union members to move past that and vote for the deal.