MUSCATINE, Iowa – Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 86D may have a new place to conduct business.

A rental property at 1401 Oregon St., directly across from the main entrance of Grain Processing Corp., will be utilized by the union, whose approximately 300 members have been protesting outside of GPC due to a lockout after a contract dispute in August 2008.

Steve Boka, director of Planning, Zoning and Building Safety, said the owner of the property had a tenant moving out, and was approached by union members to rent the house for activities and office space.

“We agreed to work with them,” Boka said. “Winter is coming.”

Boka said the current shelters used by union workers are unsuitable for cold weather and provide no indoor plumbing and little heat.

Ken Rogers, senior health and housing inspector, has inspected the rental house and agreed to let the union use the space.

“We’d like to have greater visibility but we’re not out to break the law or make trouble,” said UFCW spokesman Evan Yeats. “We’ve had a good relationship with the city and we’d like to continue that.”

Boka said the yard of the property will allow adequate space for posting signs, and the house also has a kitchen, bathroom and sitting space for union members.

The union has an office at 2110 Stewart Road, the former site of Riverbend Excavating.

In agreement to use the rental property, the UFCW will remove two of its three outdoor shacks, Yeats said.  The Corn Road location will remain, he said.

“We’ve always looked to the city for cooperation,” Yeats said. “It was a broad negotiation.”

Said Boka: “We’re doing the best we can to be sensitive but step back from the process.”

Yeats said he expects to see the transition to the new property in the next few weeks.