Operating engineers are still holding out

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July 1, 1999With the resolution of the carpenters’ dispute, the only remaining unresolved contract from this spring’s labor talks is the Area 1 builder agreement of the Internation-al Union of Operating Engineers.After three days of pickets last week at several construction sites, all of the 603 affected members of Local 139 returned to work on Monday, according to Dale A. Miller, the local’s business manager. As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 50 companies working in Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Washington and Waukesha counties had signed interim agreements, which allow operating engineers to continue working until the dispute over a master agreement is settled. The interim arrangement calls for a $1.50 hourly wage increase. Many of the remaining 127 companies covered by the agreement are based outside the area and do not do work in the union’s area on a regular basis, according to union officials. Members of the Area 1 builder agreement struck June 23 over contract language. Currently, contractors can use a member of any trade to operate a forklift for up to three hours. Over that limit, an operating engineer must be assigned to the forklift. The union is seeking to remove the limit in favor of only operating engineers working on the equipment. According to Miller and Ed J. Hayden, executive vice president of the Allied Construction Employers’ Association, the two sides have been in contact about resuming talks, though a date has not been set. In addition, charges filed by the Allied Construction Employers’ Association and the Associated General Contractors of Greater Milwaukee regarding the strike remain pending before the National Labor Relations Board, said Irving E. Gottschalk, assistant to the regional director in the board’s Milwaukee office. The charges claim that Local 139 has violated the National Labor Relations Act in its efforts to secure the forklift language.