Third-shift workers walked out of Boeing’s giant factories at Renton and Everett, Washington, as their contract expired early Friday morning, blasting music and air horns, shooting off fireworks, and waving handmade signs. They immediately formed picket lines and began setting up homemade burn barrels with “IAM” carved in the side.

“People are really excited to strike,” said Ky Carlson, a third-shift assembler who walked out at midnight and was picketing the Everett plant at 3:00 a.m. She said they were aiming for what the union demanded at the beginning of negotiations: 40 percent raises and restoration of the pension.

The union’s negotiating committee recommended a tentative agreement to members on Sunday, to almost universal condemnation. That same day, workers marched through the Everett factory on their lunch break, then out the door, chanting “Strike, Strike!”