By Chris Stetkiewicz SEATTLE, July 9 (Reuters) - Boeing Co.'s (BA) 25,000 unionized machinists on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike if current contract talks fail to produce a new deal by the Sept. 1 deadline. Union officials and Boeing's Seattle-based commercial jet unit said the vote was largely a formality and pledged to strive for a deal without disrupting work at plants in the Seattle area, Wichita, Kansas, and Portland, Oregon. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers did not release vote totals, but said 98 percent of the votes favored granting strike authorization to negotiators in their talks with the Chicago-based manufacturer. "Your collective vote today is going to send a strong and emphatic message to them folks in Chicago that just kind of hate it when we do it this way," Seattle area IAM President Mark Blondin told thousands of machinists at a raucous rally. The machinists want stronger job security and better pension benefits while Boeing is in the midst of laying off 30,000 employees in response to an airline industry slump exacerbated by the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. So far, 7,000 Seattle area machinists have lost their jobs since the attacks, swelling the rolls of local unemployed machinists to 12,000 of 32,000 active members, said local IAM President Mark Blondin. Boeing had expected strong support for strike authorization and spokesman Chuck Cadena called it a "procedural" move that did not suggest a strike was more or less likely. Union officials voiced tepid confidence that the talks could avert a strike, but they attacked Boeing, saying it had "sacrificed" jobs to boost executive bonuses and bought faulty airplane parts from overseas contractors to increase profits. "Our concern is safety. You have parts made around the world. How safe are they," said Dick Schneider, the IAM's national aerospace coordinator. Parts supplied by contractors often had to be "re-worked" at Boeing jet plants, he said. Schneider also noted Boeing's European rival Airbus SAS (EAD) (EAD) had not fired any workers since Sept. 11, choosing to cut worker hours. Boeing machinists are working overtime until production rates slow down to match staffing. "I visited Airbus three weeks ago. They said 'We haven't laid off a worker'. We thought that was awful profound," Schneider told reporters. In conversations with Airbus Chief Executive Noel Forgeard, Schneider urged him to end a "senseless race to the bottom," in which each manufacturer offers foreign governments jobs to secure aircraft sales. Forgeard replied, according to Schneider: "If Boeing stops, they'll stop." And in an unprecedented move, IAM officials will visit Wall Street later this week to try to convince analysts that moving thousands of well-paid manufacturing jobs overseas hurts Boeing and the U.S. economy, even if it boosts the stock price. The average machinist makes about $45,000 before overtime, Blondin said. But pensions may be the most contentious issue for the machinists--46 years old on average. The pension fund has a $3 billion surplus and the union says better benefits would coax thousands to retire, saving jobs for younger workers. "By God, we will obtain a significant and substantial increase to the pension plan," Blondin shouted to the crowd, which roared back with a thunderous standing ovation. Boeing buys about 64 percent of its airplane parts, as measured by dollar value, from contractors, including engine and landing gear makers. Boeing workers then assemble the jetliners in the Seattle suburbs of Everett and Renton and in Long Beach, California. Boeing workers in Wichita produce much of its in-house sub-assemblies, including 75 percent of the components in its most popular jet model, the narrow-body 737. ©2002 Reuters Limited.