BOEING has threatened striking workers with temporary layoffs, claiming that “our business is in a difficult period.”

Chief financial officer Brian West detailed 10 immediate cutbacks in a memo to workers on Monday. They include a freeze on hiring at all levels, the suspension of pay increases for managers and executives who receive promotion and a ban on all non-essential travel.

“We are also considering the difficult step of temporary furloughs for many employees, managers and executives in the coming weeks,” Mr West said.

About 33,000 workers represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers began a strike last Friday after rejecting an offer of a 25 per cent pay increase over four years. 

The union originally sought at least 40 per cent.

Representatives of the company and the union were scheduled to meet federal mediators today. The union has started to survey its members to learn what they want most in a new contract.

Striking workers are picketing at several locations in Washington state, Oregon and California.

Outside Boeing’s huge factory in Everett, Washington, Nancie Browning, a materials-management specialist for more than 17 years, said that last week’s offer was worse than the one that prompted a two-month strike in 2008. 

She said that without the annual bonuses that workers have come to depend on, the proposed pay increase was more like 9 per cent, not 25 per cent.

“We just want a piece of the pie like everybody else,” Ms Browning said. “Why should we work all this overtime and bust our backs while these guys [Boeing executives] are sitting up in their suites just raking in the cash?”

The bonuses, ranging from $3,000 to $5,000 (around £2,300 to £3,800) a year, have emerged as a flashpoint for union members.

Workers say that in contract negotiations over the past 16 years, Boeing has axed its traditional pension plan and reduced healthcare benefits.

Jacob Bustad, a machinist with with company for 14 years who was also on the picket line in Everett, said: “We want our pension back. 

“We just keep losing and we never gain, while the people at the top just get more and more money. Boeing has done really good for me and my family, but these last years have been hard.”

Last week, workers turned down a proposed deal despite union negotiators recommending acceptance.