Nate Beck

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

OSHKOSH - Workers at AxleTech International went on strike Monday, after recent contract negotiations stalled.

The United Automobile Workers Local 291 called the strike at 6 a.m. after the union and the company "failed to reach an agreement by the Jan. 29 contract expiration deadline," according to a union news release. A vote on the company's offer failed by a wide margin a day before.

About 60 employees carried signs and marched along sidewalks in front of the company's facility, 1005 High Ave., near the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh campus. Employees worked without a contract for a week before picketing Monday.

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Employees say wage increases over the past few years at AxleTech have not kept pace with rising insurance costs. The company's recent contract offer failed to bring a meaningful increase when, weighed with costs of benefits, they said.

Bob Mitchell, president of the Fox Valley Community Action Program Council, said union officials hope the strike will spur the company to re-visit its offer. He declined to say whether the company has been in contact with union officials Monday.

"We wouldn't be out here if it wasn't due to economics," Mitchell said. "Our interest is to get the company back to the table with us."

Based in Troy, Mich., AxleTech manufactures heavy-duty and specialty vehicle systems and components for commercial and defense customers, according to its website. The company has manufacturing, distribution and engineering facilities in Oshkosh, Chicago, France, Brazil and India.

AxleTech did not return numerous messages seeking comment Monday.

The Carlyle Group, a Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm owns AxleTech, and bought the company for the second time in a decade in 2015. The investment group first bought the business in 2005 and sold the company to defense contractor General Dynamics in 2008.

A major contractor of truck-maker Oshkosh Corp., AxleTech saw its employment dwindle as the U.S. military slashed production of Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles while wars in Afghanistan and Iraq wound down. The company’s military business amounted to 65 percent of its production by 2011, and between that year and 2014, sales fell from $560 million to $250 million, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Employment cuts followed slimmer sales. The company laid off 65 employees in 2013 and another 57 workers the following year.

Still, union officials were optimistic in 2015, when the Carlyle Group took over AxleTech again.

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At the time of the sale, Mitchell said UAW and the Carlyle Group had developed an amiable relationship in the mid-2000s, and expected that to continue.

“They know our business pretty darn well and we had a good experience with them last time,” Mitchell told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin in January 2015. "Our interest is always to preserve the jobs and keep them in Oshkosh. We think the pendulum will swing back the other way so we experience some growth here."

Union membership in Wisconsin has declined each year since 2008. Though it stabilized in 2016, no other state registered a higher drop in union members the year prior, when membership fell by 27 percent, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. As union membership has fallen, work stoppages have become less frequent in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin AFL-CIO applauded the strike Monday as a "brave" stand for workers' rights, according to a statement.

“As workers’ wages lag and corporate profits continue to go disproportionately to the top, striking workers are standing up to say ‘stop the squeeze on workers’ that is killing our middle class," Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO. "Workers at AxleTech are striking for fair wages, affordable healthcare and so that future generations of workers can have a decent shot at a middle-class life in Oshkosh.”

AxleTech employees said the company’s recent contract offer would have marked a steep increase in the cost of health insurance for most workers. Some recall a deep pay cut in 2003, when workers agreed to take home $10,000 less yearly to stave off further layoffs as the company changed hands.

Many workers who remain at the company have weathered layoffs and leadership changes. The manufacturer’s decades-long history in Oshkosh has been marked with uncertainty as the plant changed banners from Rockwell Automation to ArvinMentor to AxleTech.

Chet Jankowski, who has worked at AxleTech for 22 years, donned a fur cap and coat Monday and carried a blue and white picket sign along High Avenue.

The company dug in its heels after the union rejected its contract terms, he said. Most workers at AxleTech are 53 years old, on average, and health care costs in recent years have risen at the company without a compensating increase in pay.

Though he would rather be at work, earning money out of the cold, Jankowski said he and his co-workers were left with few choices.

“We’d like to come to an agreement,” Jankowski said. “The whole idea behind this is to bring the company back to the negotiating table. None of us like being out here.”

Nate Beck: 920-858-9657 or nbeck@gannett.com; on Twitter: @NateBeck9