LOS ANGELES, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) — U.S. aircraft maker Boeing and its machinists union, which has been on strike since early September, will resume contract talks later this week in Washington with the help of a federal mediator, company and union officials said Monday.

    But the International Association of Machinists (IAM) said the strike will continue unless their demands are meet in the renewed talks.

    ”We hope this marks a major step forward to resolve this strike. It is important as we move forward that we continue to stay strong on the picket lines,” said the union in a statement posted on its website Monday afternoon.

    Arthue Rosenfeld, director of the U.S. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service said earlier that his agency had notified negotiators for Boeing and the union to resume negotiations Thursday in Washington.

    The ongoing strike by about 27,000 machinists, who mostly work on Boeing’s assembly lines in Seattle, has halted the company’s production of commercial jetliners and forced the delay in deliveries of new aircraft to customers. The rollout of Boeing’s long-awaited 787 Dreamliner jet could be further postponed due to the strike.

    Union officials said they didn’t know what had made the federal mediator to recall the parties to the table and whether the renewed talks would go better.

    Boeing and the union began their last talks on Oct. 12, also brokered by the federal mediator, but the talks collapsed the following day as negotiators from the two sides were deadlocked over the issue of job our sourcing.

    Machinists at Boeing began to strike on September 6 after negotiations between the union and the company failed to find common grounds on their demands for higher wages, pension contributions and improved healthcare benefits.

    Industry analysts estimate the strike is costing Boeing at least 100 million dollars a day.