Wichita ? Leaders of Boeing’s largest union are recommending that their members turn down a contract when they vote for the second time Thursday.

Union officials announced Monday that the union would vote on the contract again, after attempts to reopen contract talks failed.

“This is a completely substandard contract with no job security at all for our members that continue to build the airplanes in America,” said Bob Wood, spokesman for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Wichita. “That is what we are fighting here.”

Boeing-Wichita spokesman Dick Ziegler said the company applauded the new vote.

“It is a step in the right direction,” Ziegler said. “We encourage all of our Machinists eligible to vote to do so after they make themselves completely aware of not only of the contract provisions, but the state of the industry. This is a fair contract.”

The machinists will vote from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Century II in Wichita. Union officials will not conduct a mass meeting for this vote, so members can come in and vote at their convenience, said Steve Rooney, the union’s District Lodge 70 representative.

On Aug. 29, while union members were voting on the contract offer and a possible strike, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service asked the two sides to go to Washington D.C. for mediation.

Those original ballots were sealed and have not been counted. Wood said those ballots now would be destroyed to avoid any controversy.

Boeing will stick by its earlier announced plans to shut down its commercial airplane production line if the Machinists strike, Ziegler said.

Boeing’s Wichita plant employs 12,680 workers, with about 5,900 of them represented by the Machinists union. Boeing is the largest private employer in the state.

The union has gone on strike twice in the past four contract negotiations, most recently in 1995.