The troubled aerospace company Boeing faced a new crisis on Friday when more than 30,000 workers in the Pacific Northwest began a major strike.

The industrial action began days after Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft returned to Earth uncrewed due to mechanical problems, and months after a door stopper burst from the company’s plane in mid-flight. This in turn came five years after Boeing’s 737 Max planes were grounded worldwide for the first time following two tragic crashes.

The company’s difficulties have set the stage for the strike, deepening frustration among workers while strengthening their influence, experts told ABC News. But they added that the company itself may be using the strikes to strengthen its position in the stalemate. A prolonged work stoppage could further endanger the already weakened company and ultimately hurt workers.

“Everyone in the world knows that Boeing has had some quality problems,” Art Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University’s Worker Institute, told ABC News.

“Workers should be concerned about profits because if Boeing goes bankrupt, they’ll lose their jobs,” Wheaton said. “But the problems are a byproduct of the quality declines that come from trying to build more planes with fewer people. Workers want decent wages and safe planes.”

Boeing reached a tentative agreement earlier this week with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), the union that represents 33,000 workers at Boeing plants in Washington state, Oregon and California.

Nevertheless, 94.6 percent of union members rejected the tentative agreement on Thursday evening. After 96 percent of IAM members voted in favor of the measure, they began a strike at midnight on Friday.

“The message was clear that the tentative agreement we reached with IAM leadership was not acceptable to members,” Boeing said in a statement after the strike vote. “We remain committed to resetting our relationships with our employees and the union, and we are ready to return to the bargaining table to reach a new agreement.”

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg acknowledged the company’s missteps in a letter to union members before the strike was voted on.

“Boeing is no secret that our business is going through a difficult period, due in part to our own past mistakes. I know that by working together we can get back on track, but a strike would jeopardize our collective recovery, further undermine our customers’ confidence and impair our ability to shape our future together,” Ortberg said in the letter, which the company provided to ABC News.

Boeing declined to comment when asked by ABC News after the strike began. A similar request from ABC News to the IAM initially remained unanswered.

The tentative agreement reached this week between Boeing and the IAM would have provided a 25% wage increase over the four-year term of the contract, as well as gains in health care costs and pension benefits for workers. The union had demanded a 40% wage increase over the term of the contract.

The agreement also included Boeing’s commitment to build its next commercial aircraft with union members in Washington state.

Union members are being asked to make sacrifices that have become necessary due to the company’s mismanagement, Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst at Atmosphere Research Group, told ABC News.

On January 5, a door stopper flew out of the Boeing 737 Max 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight at an altitude of about 15,000 feet, triggering an investigation by U.S. federal authorities. The renewed investigation comes about five years after Boeing 737 Max planes were grounded worldwide following two crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed a total of 346 people.

“Boeing management initially approved the various shortcuts that led to the problems,” Harteveldt said.

The spectacular mishaps for which the company’s management is responsible are giving workers an advantage, winning public goodwill and driving Boeing’s efforts to turn things around, experts say.

“Public opinion may be more on the side of the workers because we have all witnessed the horrific incidents at Boeing in recent years,” Jungho Suh, a management professor at George Washington University, told ABC News.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed a production cap of 38 737 Max airplanes per month on Boeing following the doorstop incident earlier this year. Boeing recently pushed back a production increase that was scheduled to begin this month until March 2025, according to a Bank of America Global Research analysis seen by ABC News.

Strikes by this group of unionized Boeing workers in the Pacific Northwest have historically lasted an average of 60 days, according to a Bank of America Global Research analysis of seven strikes, the earliest of which occurred in 1948.

“We see Boeing in a particularly weak position,” said Bank of America. “A prolonged strike would likely exacerbate existing problems.”

However, Boeing could also use its corporate problems as leverage at the negotiating table, some experts say.

Boeing has nearly $60 billion in debt, Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and COO Stephanie Pope noted in a letter to union members earlier this week. The company’s stock price has plummeted nearly 40% since the start of 2024. Kelly Ortberg took over as Boeing’s president and CEO last month as part of a turnaround effort, replacing previous CEO Dave Calhoun, who announced his resignation in March following the Alaska Airlines doorstop incident.

“If there is a strike, Boeing will be weakened even more,” said Harteveldt of the Atmosphere Research Group. “If the strike lasts a long time, Boeing could take a long time to recover. There is a risk that this will lead to further potential problems for workers.”

Workers and management will present their respective concerns at the negotiating table, said Wheaton of Cornell University.

“That’s why there are negotiations,” Wheaton said. “Both sides will not get everything they want, but something they can live with.”