Union carpenters in Lawrence went on strike for the first time in years Tuesday, a move that is expected to have little effect on Lawrence’s building industry since most of the community’s construction is done with nonunion workers.

Members of Carpenters Union Local 1445 began picketing two Lawrence locations Tuesday after the union was unable to negotiate a new work contract to replace their previous three-year deal, which expired at the end of March. Union carpenters in Topeka covered by the same contract also were on strike Tuesday.

Union CARPENTERS Todd Harvey, left, and Kim Kinder, both of Topeka, picket in front of B.A. Green Construction Co. The union has been unable to reach a contract agreement with area construction companies.

Two union workers picketed outside the offices of B.A. Green Construction Co., 1207 Iowa, and two more picketed at a B.A. Green construction site on the Kansas University campus near 15th and Iowa streets.

B.A. Green Construction is generally considered the largest Lawrence employer of union carpenters. Tracy Green, president of B.A. Green Construction, confirmed that his company’s union carpenters did not report to work Tuesday.

He said the strike wasn’t expected to delay projects his company is working on because he has enough nonunion employees to staff job sites.

“We don’t anticipate any problems at all,” Green said.

Green said the strike stems from disagreements over negotiations between the union and area construction companies that employ union workers.

“We started some late negotiations with them but haven’t been able to get it worked out,” Green said. “The issues really aren’t anything out of the ordinary. Some of it is economics and some of it is disagreements over wording issues in the contract.”

Green, however, declined to be more specific about the union’s demands or about what the union was asking for in terms of wages and benefits.

Attempts to reach union spokesman Terry Davis for comment were unsuccessful, and picketers and others at the union’s Topeka headquarters declined to comment.

In an interview last August with Earl Kanatzar, the executive secretary/treasurer for the carpenter’s union, he estimated the number of Lawrence residents who belong to the union at 130. Not all of those members necessarily work for Lawrence construction companies, and Kanatzar conceded that union carpenters made up a very small percentage of the Lawrence construction industry.

Kanatzar also said that the last time the carpenters union had went out on strike was in the early 1990s.

Green, who declined to say how many union workers his company employs, said he cannot remember the last time there was a carpenter’s strike affecting Lawrence.

As for how long this strike may last, Green was not tipping the hand of management, declining to even comment on whether negotiations are still under way between the two sides. He also declined to comment on whether his company would continue to employ union carpenters in the future.

F. Rozier Sharp, regional director of the Kansas City office of the National Labor Relations Board, said his office has not been asked to become involved in the negotiation process and said no complaints have been filed at his office by either side.