Seattle concrete mixer drivers on strike after negotiations break down

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America's Work Force Union Podcast AWF

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Jamie Fleming

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Teamsters Local 174 Director of Communications and Research Jamie Fleming joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss a strike by 330 Seattle concrete mixer drivers, which has entered its fourth month.

The strike began on Dec. 3, 2021 after management failed to bargain in good faith, Fleming said. Workers are picketing at 12 different locations against six different companies including Gary Merlino Construction, Stoneway Concrete, Cadman, CalPortland, Salmon Bay Sand & Gravel and Lehigh Cement.

Since the beginning of the strike, workers and management have met twice for remediation. At the first session, Fleming noted management failed to bring a new proposal. During the second session, management offered only a $0.30 per hour raise over three years. This did not even touch the increased cost of living facing the workers, who are building a city they cannot afford to live in, she added.

While the companies have brought in replacement workers, the highly skilled concrete mixer drivers are difficult to replace, Fleming said. She is hopeful the employers will soon run out of options and return to the bargaining table.

Listen to the entire episode to learn more about the strike:

America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.

America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, Alliance for American Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes-IBT, Boyd Watterson, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, Melwood, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of North America, The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.

Seattle concrete mixer drivers on strike after negotiations break down

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