Ohio State union workers closed down all construction at Ohio Stadium early this morning by setting up picket lines that stadium construction workers refused to break.”We are supporting them,” said Jerry Robinson, a stadium worker for Iron Local 172. “If they would have blocked the gates the first day of the strike, we would have stopped construction then.”Members of the Communications Workers of America Local 4501 and student protesters started blocking stadium workers from entering the gates before 5:30 a.m.The strikers stopped nearly 400 workers from entering the stadium. Many of the stadium workers hovered around the strikers or in the Tuttle parking garage, occasionally shouting their support for the strike.According to Robinson, a large number of stadium workers belong to unions.The strikers and protesters blocked the stadium to illustrate the skewed priorities of the university, said Jill Burkart, a graduate student in sociology.”If they have the money to pay for this stadium, they have the money to pay their university workers,” she said.The estimated cost of stadium renovations is $187 million.By 10:00 a.m., all construction had been stopped and many incoming supply trucks had been turned around. The strikers’ spirits were high and there was a sense of accomplishment among the workers.It was at this time that Seth Rosen, national spokesman for the union, urged strikers to move back to their designated picket areas. He said he feared that an injunction had been issued by the university to arrest the strikers for illegally blocking some entrance gates to the stadium. Picketers surrounded nearly every stadium entrance, and according to state and federal labor laws, it is illegal for picketers to occupy and block gates that non-university workers go through.The stadium workers are non-university employees.”It is absolutely illegal for workers to block the entrances,” said Elizabeth Conlisk, university spokeswoman. Conlisk said that the university is preparing a request for a temporary restraining order against strikers at the stadium.What the university found particularly disturbing is the violence that took place at the stadium gates this morning.Student protester Sean Luse claims to have been punched in the jaw by a stadium worker who was trying to force his way through the blocked gate.According to Luse, the worker cut the lock on the gate to go through and students ran in front of his truck to block the vehicle from entering the stadium. As the worker tried to force his way through the crowd, students started pounding on the hood of the truck. This is when Rosen said the worker attacked him.Luse has filed assault charges with University Police.Robert Rife, a CWA union member, said that he was hit by a stadium employee’s car when he tried to block the sport utility vehicle from entering stadium grounds.According to Rife, the vehicle hit his lower leg, taking off a pant leg, and rolled over the top of his foot.Rife also plans on filing charges with OSU police.Conlisk said the university was the body that actually shut down today’s stadium operations.”We officially closed the stadium construction at 9:30 a.m.,” she said. “We felt that the stadium workers’ safety was in jeopardy.”Stadium construction is a crucial issue with the university because of the fast-approaching football season, Conlisk said.Union and university negotiations were halted Thursday night after the university refused the last union proposal for a $1.25 raise effective July 1, with a 65-cent increase in 2001 and a 60-cent increase in 2002.”The university is not willing to put any more money on the table,” Rosen said. “They are also refusing to make equal offers to hospital workers.”He also said negotiations between the union and university will be frozen until Wednesday or Thursday of next week.”It looks like the strike will enter its third week.” he said.