Wichita ? Tuyet Nguyen managed to keep her job at The Boeing Co. even as her husband, a son, a sister and brother all got laid off from the company. But on Thursday, she voted against Boeing’s contract offer and for a strike.

“I have too many people in my family who lost their jobs … I am ready to go on strike,” she said.

For her and many other Boeing workers, job security is the single most important contract issue. Boeing’s largest union voted on a new contract offer on Thursday in Wichita and Portland, Ore., and union members in Washington state the largest segment of Machinists will vote today. Results are expected to be announced tonight. If a strike authorization succeeds, the Machinists would strike at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

Union leadership has urged its members to reject the proposal, first presented Aug. 27, and authorize a strike. Ballots from the earlier vote were not counted because of confusion arising after a federal mediator intervened.

“This contract was never about money. It was about jobs staying in this community,” said Steve Rooney, president of District 70 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

The union pushed unsuccessfully for job guarantees that tie employment levels with aircraft deliveries or other business benchmarks.

Boeing has laid off 4,650 workers in Wichita since last year’s terrorist attacks. The company has said it plans to cut a total of 30,000 jobs across the country, including 5,000 in Wichita.

As workers voted across town, Boeing spokesman Dick Ziegler said the company did not want a strike.

“If our folks were to strike, the strike is going to be long. It is going to be hard and it is going to be difficult,” he said. “And the only winner in that kind of strike is going to be (aircraft maker) Airbus.”

He said the industry was in trouble as it combatted a softening economy and the terrorist attacks.

“I will guarantee job security, if they will guarantee to me to bring me customers. That is the only way it is going to happen,” he said.