Receding lines

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, January 12, 2006

About half the Machinists on strike against Boeing’s Huntington Beach, Calif., rocket business unit have crossed picket lines and gone back to work, the Orange County Register reports. http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_945093.php

Key Quote: “Although 85 percent of union members voted to strike, some Huntington Beach members never stopped working. Others have returned to work since the strike began. Altogether, 200 or more of the 450 Huntington Beach members aren’t honoring the strike, union leaders and workers said.”

Despite the defections, union leaders say they retain leverage because of their strength of support among the workers at launch sites at Cape Canaveral, Fla., and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.