The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 139 strike entered on Friday entered its sixth day as members picketed on construction sites across southeastern Wisconsin, after the union and its contractors couldn’t come to an agreement at their contract’s expiration date.

The strike started after the contract between the union and the Associated General Contractors of Greater Milwaukee and the Allied Construction Employers Association expired on May 31. The parties were renewing a collective bargaining agreement which included wages and benefits.

“The Area I building contract negotiations have stalled. The membership didn’t like what the (offer) was and voted it down,” said Mike Ervin, the Local 139’s organizing director. Terry McGowan, the president and business manager of Local 139, talked to contractors and was asked to vote on the offer again. The members still disapproved.

The union had already agreed to strike if it couldn’t reach an agreement by the end of May. When Saturday came without a final agreement, members stopped work and started picketing a number of construction sites.

Operating engineers members picketed sites in several counties, including the forensic science lab and parking structure at the Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin campus in Wauwatosa, Milwaukee County’s Marcia P. Coggs Human Services Center and the Marquette University Recreation Center in Milwaukee, Ervin said. Members also picketed at two crane rental sites that were on the bargaining team, he added.

Dozens of Local 139 members on Friday were out picketing multiple Milwaukee job sites and cranes stood still. Some sites were still active as other trades showed up for work that day.

“Nobody wants to be out here, but this is what we have to do,” Ervin said. “These members want to go back to work but they want to go back to work with a fair contract.”

The AGC-GM agreed to meet with the union with a proposed wage package and membership will vote again, according to the contractors. They will meet on Monday morning at 9 a.m.

The parties were supposed to meet Thursday morning, but the meeting was canceled and rescheduled, an organizing member said.

Mark Kessenich, the chief executive officer of AGC-GM, said his organization and the union had a series of meetings since the first agreement wasn’t ratified and will continue to find common ground.

“We respect and appreciate our relationship with men and women in the Operating Engineers Local 139 and its leadership,” Kessenich said. “These are union members and also members of our respective firms. We’re disappointed there is no agreement at this point, but we will continue to work with the union to get a fair agreement,” he added.

ACEA leadership has not commented as of publication.

In 1999, more than 600 operating engineers went on strike across Wisconsin after an unresolved contract in the Area I building agreement.