The company proposed to freeze the defined-benefit pension for those employees who have one and offered a 3 percent match to their 401(k), Maas said.

The employees also have a two-tier wage system, he said, part of concessions made in 2005 to keep jobs in Lincoln. In the new contract, all employees were to get a 3 percent raise in the first year and 2 percent for each of the next two years.

The union wanted the newer hires, who don't make as much money, to get an hourly adjustment equal to the raises the more senior employees got, Maas said.

"They wouldn't even talk about that," said Maas, who works in maintenance at the Lincoln plant.

The highest pay grade is $28 an hour for toolmakers, and it goes down to half that, Maas said.

The union voted 85 percent to reject the new contract on its first vote in Sept. 13, Maas said, and in a separate vote agreed to strike by the same margin. After the company conducted captive meetings of employees and handed out written communications describing the consequences of striking, the Lincoln employees approved the contract by a margin of eight votes on Oct. 4, according to Maas.

"They swear they care about us," he said. "It's basically intimidation."