Give 'em hell

The president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Scott E. Carson, said in a written statement: “Over the past two days, Boeing, the union and the federal mediator worked hard in pursuing good-faith explorations of options that could lead to an agreement. Unfortunately, the differences were too great to close.”

Boeing has a backlog of more than 3,600 orders valued at $263 billion in all. The majority of those aircraft are versions of the Boeing 737, a short-range plane that is the world’s most popular.

Boeing, which earned a record $4.1 billion in 2007, could easily withstand a short strike. But a long walkout could cause more delays in the development of the Boeing 787, a long-range jet nicknamed the Dreamline |NY Times|