The Aug. 23 vote shot down an incentive-pay plan linking worker income with productivity.

USW members at the plant voted 488 to 225 against the proposal.

"We are disappointed. We believe this vote was critical to the plant’s future," BFNAT spokesman Dan MacDonald said. "To be successful in a fiercely competitive global economy this plant needs to improve productivity. It is not at a level to make us globally competitive. We don’t set the rules, the marketplace does."

MacDonald added that decisions about the factory would need to be made "down the road."

USW Local 1055 President Gary Manning said the vote against the contract was no surprise. "Workers didn’t have any real assurances that this would really protect the plant," Manning said. "The biggest problem here was not knowing what the numbers would be, how much these workers would be expected to do and under what terms."