(Radio Iowa) – About 100 workers at the Cargill plant in Cedar Rapids are on strike. The Teamsters contract for workers at the corn milling plant in Cedar Rapids expired at midnight Monday. The union sought a three-dollar-an hour pay increase over the next three years and rejected the company’s lower offer.

Cargill is a privately owned company and Cargill’s C-E-O says the marketplace is extremely challenging right now and company officials say they’re hopeful negotiations will yield a contract agreement in the near future.

The Teamsters say wages the Cargill plant in Cedar Rapids is below pay at other local plants and workers are striking for a fair wage increase.