FAIRFIELD — Union employees at Dexter Co., in Fairfield didn’t go to work Monday. The 165 members of International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 1293 want a better contract.

Dexter’s plant manufactures washing machines and driers, mostly for industrial and commercial buyers. The company also operates a foundry and a financial division.

IAM spokesman Ed Miller said union members voted nearly unanimously to walk. The Saturday vote followed rejection of the company’s final offer, which Miller said boosts health care costs without compensating workers with significant pay increases. He said the proposal raises pay 90 cents over five years.

“The proposal from the company is a five-year agreement and the insurance deductibles gradually go up to, in the fourth year, double what they are now,” Miller said. “That’s, basically, a regressive proposal on insurance. The members wouldn’t have a problem accepting the insurance if the money was there.”

The union’s last contract covered five years. Miller said the pay in the previous contract went up by $2.35 over the course of that contract.

Dexter officials issued a brief statement:

“We are disappointed that the IAM turned down our offer as it was a better offer than the one our foundry workers ratified just last month. It is pretty much business as usual in our company. We are making machines, servicing customer orders and evaluating alternative sources for increasing production capacity.”

Negotiations between the union and the company were ongoing over the course of the past three weeks. Miller said the two sides came to agreement on everything but pay and health insurance costs. The company and the union spent the last week of negotiations haggling over those details.

Miller said the union represents about 165 employees out of a total work force of 212. Union members said most of the non-union workers respected the picket lines and did not come to work Monday.

The company was founded in 1894 in Dexter, Iowa. It moved to Fairfield in 1912. The foundry cut about 40 jobs earlier this year.

Union members said contract negotiations usually go smoothly. They recalled a strike in the late 1980s and a brief one in 1997. But they said that doesn’t mean they are not prepared to strike as long as it takes to get what they want.

Strikers set up locations at five entry points at the plant. Three are along entries on the plant’s west side. The others are along the plant’s southern entries. They spent the morning hours getting set up, erecting sun shades for strikers and bringing in firewood for burn barrels to stay warm overnight.

Strikers said they received strong support from the community on the first lost day of work. Fairfield fast food restaurants donated breakfast and lunch.

There are no negotiations currently scheduled, though Miller said the union is prepared to go back to the table at any time.

“The ball’s in their court,” he said.