Campus construction projects that hired union bricklayers may slow until a strike is resolved.

Bricklayer Tracy Lee and others spent Thursday morning in front of the Hoover Hall construction site to protest unfair wages. Thursday marked the second day of a strike by area members of the Bricklayers and Allied Crafts labor union.

Lee said picketers will change locations every day until the strike is resolved.

Gary Crees, president of the Bricklayers and Allied Crafts Local 3 Iowa in Des Moines, said contracts for Chapter 27, the Ames-Fort Dodge area, came up for negotiation on April 30.

The 65 members of the chapter are not working because no agreement has been reached with contractors, he said.

“We are not trying to hold anybody up,” Crees said. “This is just about fair wages.”

Lee, a member of Ames Local 3 Iowa, said he hoped negotiations would lead to health insurance benefits, but said the union has been “absolutely refused health insurance,” so picketing is now just over wages.

Lee said negotiations “are a ways off,” and he is willing to stick it out.

“I need to work, but I need health insurance too,” he said.

Crees said health insurance has been dropped completely, and a federal mediator has been contacted by the contractors. He anticipates a meeting of all parties within two weeks.

“We are trying to negotiate a three-year contract for them so they will know where they are at,” he said.

Crees said construction continues without the union masonry work at Hoover Hall, the UDA Suite Building and other areas.