MUSCATINE, Iowa — Muscatine police this morning arrested Bradley Hansen, 31, of Muscatine in connection with the vandalism of three shelters used by locked-out Grain Processing Corp. employees.

Hansen, a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 86D, was charged with first-offense operating while intoxicated and fifth-degree criminial mischief, both misdemeanors, police Lt. Brett Talkington said.

Police were on the scene this morning, preparing to file a damage report. Hansen’s maroon and tan 2000 GMC pickup, which police said was used to damage the shelters, was found at Bond and Evans streets and impounded.

Union members built the shelters out of wood and plastic after the lockout began in August 2008. The shelters are on Oregon Street across from GPC’s main gate, the 1900 block of Stewart Road and on Dick Drake Way where trucks enter and exit the plant. Union members have picketed the company from those locations.

About 360 workers, including 300 union members, were locked out by GPC after their five-year contract expired and both sides failed to reach a contract agreement. The company makes and sells corn-based products around the world.

The shelter on Dick Drake Way was crushed and tire tracks were visible in the muddy ground, showing a line from the road to the shelter and then back to the road. About a quarter of the shelter was crushed and an iron wood-burning stove had been moved off of its foundation inside. A portable toilet was overturned and a screen door and gutters were ripped down and smashed.

On Oregon Street, tire marks were visible heading toward the back corner of the shelter where a vehicle appeared to have been used to hit a portion of the wall, causing minimal damage.

Union members at the Stewart Road shelter said someone had removed the piping from a stove used for heat. The plastic had been slashed on the front of the hut.

“This has been a peaceful lockout,” 86D board member Bob Weatherman said, expressing his disappointment in the vandalism.

“I would think the guard at the front gate would have had seen something,” Weatherman said.

GPC spokeswoman Janet Sichterman said this morning she could confirm only that the company had heard about the damage and that the police had been called.

Union members said the shelters were intact Monday night and that they found the damage early this morning.

“We had our cozy little place,” Weatherman said. “We’ll get it back up good as new.”