By Seth Burkett, Chicago Tribune

Union members employed at United Launch Alliance failed to authorize a strike during a vote Sunday on a contract proposal that will exclude new hires from the defined benefit pension plan current employees receive.

The three-year contract was accepted despite members voting to reject the contract by 65 percent, union officials said.

The vote to strike fell roughly 1 percent short of the two-thirds majority required, said International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Business Representative Gary Wills.

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