Nuclear Test Site Workers Stay Home to Support Bus Strike
More than 1,300 Nevada nuclear test site workers stayed off the job Tuesday in a show of support for striking bus drivers who transport them to the desert site 65 miles northwest of here.
Steve Leon, a spokesman for Reynolds Electrical & Engineering Co., one of the main contractors at the nation’s nuclear testing grounds, said his company was reporting 1,300 absentees among its 2,600 employees. Energy Department spokesman Jim Boyer said most of the union workers are electricians, carpenters and laborers.
More than 1,000 of the site’s 5,300 workers stayed off the job last Wednesday in a similar show of support. Boyer said at the time that the absenteeism would not hurt the testing program unless it was prolonged.
Las Vegas-Tonopah-Reno Stage Lines transports about 3,000 workers to the test site daily. Drivers went on strike against the company Aug. 15, but buses have continued to roll with substitute drivers.
Drivers have been given until Monday to return to work.
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