EVERETT - Passing motorists honked their horns in a varying chorus as scores of striking Boeing Co. machinists waved picket signs outside the plant entrance on the first day of their strike.

And behind the signs there were varying reactions to the strike, which began at 12:01 Saturday.

"I don't think anyone wants to be out here to strike, but if you can't get the essentials to live off of, then this is where we need to be," said Chad Meyers, a team leader on the Boeing 787 program.

Meyers brought his four kids with him, who enthusiastically waved their own picket signs. His wife, Dee Dee Meyers, also a Boeing machinist, was there, too.

For both of them, job security was the most important issue in their decision to support the strike.

Brian Waters, a 20-year employee who works in the Boeing 777 program, called the strike "disappointing" but says he saw it coming.

"Being in the union, we've gotta do what we've gotta do," he said philosophically.

He said Boeing proposal had some good points - but "the take-aways were hidden underneath the features."

Most worrisome to him, he said, are the contract proposal's higher medical deductibles and greater outsourcing. And he said the higher wages will be good not only for the machinists but for the entire community, where the money will be spent.

"More money will flow into the community, instead of it just being in the CEO's pocket," he said.

Nevertheless, Waters said he was hopeful that a contract acceptable to both sides could be hammered out during the 48-hour delay that preceded the strike - and he still hopes the strike is short.

"Hopefully we can get back in there and start making the world's best airplanes again."

Ken Groves, who works in the Boeing 777 Wings Division, also said he is most concerned about the potential for outsourcing under the new contract.

"They want to take away more jobs, and I don't think it's right," he said. "We need to keep our work here, not overseas."

He said airplane parts and work that are outsourced to foreign companies have to redone and fixed, and it costs extra money and time to do that.

"We can get the job done faster and cheaper," he said of the machinists. "They have to redo the work that's outsourced."

Groves also said there needs to be a more equitable division of Boeing's profits, so that workers get their share.

"It's time for them upstairs, the big boys, to start giving it back to us," he said. "Quit giving it to the big boys and give it to the guys that earn it, the ones that work for it."

He said he's ready to strike as often as it takes to get a fair contract, and he said he feels Boeing machinists

"I'm ready for one every year if they want to play their games, but I don't want to play their games. I want a good work force."

This is the machinists' second strike in as many contract negotiations with Boeing. They struck for 24 days in 2005.

The machinists assemble Boeing's commercial planes and some key components.

Boeing spokesman Tim Healy said the company is open to further discussion, but both sides were too far apart to reach an agreement. No additional talks were scheduled.

Union members voted to strike on Wednesday, but both sides agreed to a 48-hour contract extension - requested by Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire and a federal mediator. However, negotiations failed Friday and the strike was on.

The union bargains for about 25,000 workers in the Puget Sound area, 1,500 in the Portland, Ore. area and about 750 in Wichita, Kan.

Boeing's "best and final" three-year offer, presented Aug. 28 after talks that began May 8, included bonuses totaling at least $5,000 and averaging $6,400, raises averaging 11 percent, pension increases and a 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment - $34,000 in average pay and benefit gains per employee, according to the company.

The average Boeing machinist earns $27 an hour, or about $56,000 a year, before overtime and incentives.

Analysts have said a strike could cost Boeing about $100 million per day in deferred revenue. During the last strike, Boeing was unable to deliver more than two dozen airplanes on schedule.