The first pieces of a new dragline were delivered to BNI Coal Friday and some North Dakotans are worried they won't get a piece of it.

Union carpenters, electricians and iron workers say they'd like to work close to home rather than "boom" out of state, but the company's not responding to their applications.

Minserco West of Gillette, Wyo., is the construction subsidiary of Bucyrus, the Milwaukee dragline manufacturer. Minserco manager, Mike Schranz, said dragline construction will not be a union job.

The coal mine operator at Center is building the first dragline built anywhere in the country in nearly a decade and in almost 20 years out in Coal Country.

The machine with a 75-cubic yard bucket will cost BNI about $35 million.

Company officials said some $7 million of that will go for construction costs, including labor, mainly welders, electricians and millwrights. The job is expected to take about 18 months. The new dragline will go into service in the fall of 2004.

Schranz said his company wants to be as economical as possible and will pay fair wages based on an area survey.

Unions say they'll work for the going rate, whether or not the job is union.

"We'll go out and work for whatever they're paying," said Mark Hager, a business representative for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Bismarck. Still, he thinks the company doesn't want union workers on the job.

Schranz said applications don't ask if the applicant is a union member. He said he expects about two-thirds of the approximately 50 workers needed will be from North Dakota. The rest will be from Minserco's own staff.

He said the project won't start in earnest until May and more people will be hired in coming weeks and months based on their qualifications and work experience.

"If they're qualified, we don't care (if they're union)," he said. He said Minserco works both union and non-union contracts.

Hager said 25 union electricians applied for the 10 or so job postings for electricians back in February. None have heard back, even though they were told to expect word in 30 to 45 days, he said.

Meanwhile, the company is still advertising for electricians through Job Service North Dakota.

Hager said everybody's out of work right now and the union has attempted to talk to Minserco management, but has gotten no response.

"We don't worry about whether it's union or not," he said. "We'd like to sit down and do whatever they can do to employ North Dakotans."

BNI Coal president Mike Hummel did not return calls to comment on this story.

Gary Nelson, business representative for the Iron Workers Union in Bismarck, said only one union member of several who've applied has been contacted to take a welding test.

He said Minserco has a list of 53 tools welders are expected to bring to the dragline construction job site. He thinks the list is intended to keep people from even applying.

"I've never seen a list like this. No (welders) that I know would have stuff like that," Nelson said. "This goes beyond the basic tool belt."

Schranz said if people are surprised by the tools list, it's probably because they've never been involved in dragline construction.

Leonard Roemmich of Sterling, a union carpenter, said he applied for work, but hasn't heard back, either. He said he was told anyone hired has to pay for their own drug testing, a cost normally covered by the company.

Roemmich said he hasn't had work since fall.

Schranz said he's hired three local workers so far to supplement the four Minserco employees who are on site at Center.

That pace will pick up as dragline parts are delivered for construction.

Hager said when the job gets under way, he'll go to the construction site to look at who was hired, their qualifications and in what order they applied.

He said the union might file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board if it appears Minserco's hiring practices discriminated against union workers.

About half of the pieces that make up the dragline's base have been delivered to a graveled construction yard just south of Center.

Schranz said assembly will begin in the next week or so and continue as more pieces are delivered by truck from Milwaukee throughout the summer.

A dragline is a monster of an excavating machine that removes dirt overburden from above coal seams. The new machine will replace Big Sandy, an old model with a bucket bite about one-fourth the size.

By contrast, the new dragline would be able to clench a big yellow school bus in its bucket.

BNI officials said earlier they planned to get the public involved in naming the new machine.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511, or scoop@ndonline.com.)