New York: Boeing Co.’s second largest union voted on Monday, 2 December, to approve the company’s four-year contract offer, avoiding a second damaging strike at the plane maker’s Seattle area plants.

A majority of the more than 20,000 members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace—the union representing white-collar engineers and technicians—voted in favour of the contract.

The result is a boost for Boeing, which is still struggling to get its airplane production lines up to speed a month after its 27,000 machinists returned to work after a 58-day strike.

SPEEA and Boeing negotiators reached a tentative deal almost three weeks ago, after two weeks of face-to-face negotiations.

With the vote, two major Boeing contracts have been approved. The first covers 13,898 Boeing engineers and the second covers 6,576 technical workers.

The contracts go into effect 2 December 2008, and expire 6 October 2012, the company said.

The vast majority work at Boeing’s Seattle area plants, but some are also located in Oregon, Utah and California.