The board could make a decision at any time but Robert Hicks, the attorney representing Local 364, echoed union members who say that the board is not fully staffed and will not review the Vincent Bach strike until all the empty seats are filled.

"In light of the fact that this is a fairly complex case, they might wait for the additional members to be part of the decision," Hicks said. "At this point, both sides are in the waiting game."

A call to the NLRB was not returned.

Strikers are hopeful the incoming administration will appoint labor-friendly representatives to the NLRB who will more likely side with the union in the decertification decision. Should the UAW win the vote and therefore continue to represent the workers in the Vincent Bach plant, members of Local 364 believe that will bring the company back to the bargaining table.

"It's been about three years and all we want is a fair contract," said Bo Coody, a member of Local 364's bargaining committee.

The strike began April 1, 2006, when the 240-member Local rejected the company's contract offer. Although an estimated 70 UAW members have crossed the line and gone back to work at Vincent Bach, a remaining 102 strikers still believe in their cause and maintain the Conn-Selmer's original intent was to break the union.

Conn-Selmer is building brass horns in a plant with about 152 workers, said Julie Theriault, spokeswoman for Steinway Musical Instruments, parent company of Conn-Selmer. Production has been outpacing demand so the Bach plant began shutting down operations in the middle of December and does not expect to start again until the beginning of January.

Meanwhile, the former UMI plant which makes woodwind instruments, was to stop production for only a few days during the holiday week, Theriault said. That facility got a boost in work and employees when Conn-Selmer closed a couple of manufacturing operations in Wisconsin and moved them to Elkhart earlier in 2008.

In September, Local 364 president Robert Allen was encouraged that the union and the company were close to finalizing a contract that would include a severance package for the strikers. Such language, he believed, would be enough to get the contract ratified, bringing an end to the dispute.

However, an agreement was never reached and the strike continues.

Local 364 member Cynthia Stewart was not as sure that severances alone would convince strikers to vote yes on a contract. Even so, her New Year's wish is for the dispute to end but not before the strikers get their due.

"We deserve something," Steward said. "We built that company. We served that company faithfully."

Given the nation's economic turmoil, president-elect Barack Obama probably will not turn his attention to the NLRB anytime soon, said Earl Prestly, chief steward for Local 364. Still, just having him in the Oval Office is reason to be upbeat.

The middle class, the working class has "always been the backbone of the world," Prestly said. "We feel that fairness is coming."