Workers at several construction sites in six Indiana cities remained off their jobs and on picket lines today to win higher wages.
The local job actions were called by the Indiana Laborers District Council after the union’s contract expired Saturday.
In Indianapolis, Laborers’ Local 120 and other local members were on strike at 28 to 30 construction sites, including the Simon Family Towers at Riley Hospital for Children and Indiana University’s Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center.
They’re also striking at Lawrence Central and Decatur Central high schools, Eli Lilly and Co., and National Starch.
“They need better wages. The price of gas is going up, food is expensive, the economy is in bad shape, and we have been held down with low wages long enough. And it’s time to get a raise. Our guys can hardly afford to go to work,” said David Frye, business manager for Local 120.
Laborers are striking against the Indiana Construction Association, which is the management association for general contractors.
Similar actions are occurring in Terre Haute, Lafayette, Muncie, Richmond and Bloomington.
The laborers’ union met with the Indiana Construction Association this afternoon, but nothing was decided, said Charles V. Kahl, president of the Indiana Construction Association.
The Construction Association is negotiating an agreement on behalf of 43 contracting companies. Kahl said his agency was successful in getting three-year contracts for unions representing carpenters, ironworkers and operating engineers after their contracts expired May 31.
However, the laborers union, he said, has rejected wage-hike offers of about 4 percent a year.
“It is certainly in line with today’s economy. We feel we have a reasonable offer on the table,” Kahl said.
Wallace Wampler, a veteran laborers union member who was picketing today at a job site near the Indiana University football stadium in Bloomington, said he was disappointed that negotiations had broken down with contractors.
A strike “could have been avoided by proper negotiations as in years past,” he said. “It’s going to be a hardship for a lot of people.”
Wampler, a Bloomingtonm resident, said he earns union wages of about $20 an hour. He said he hadn’t been told by his union what the sticking points were in the negotiations.
It’s unclear how the strike is affecting work sites, since rainy weather has also impacted some projects.
Call Star reporter Tom Spalding at (317) 444-6202.
