Seattle concrete workers strike called off by union leaders

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April 25, 2022

The Seattle concrete workers strike has been ended, but the future is uncertain

by Phil West, Seattle Workers’ Voice

In an earlier article, I wrote about the ongoing strike of the concrete workers in Seattle. These workers went on strike in late November against Gary Merlino, one of the concrete companies, and then expanded their strike on December 1 against all six concrete companies. This was after four months working without a contract because the companies refused to negotiate seriously over one of the chief issues, paid retirement medical care, no matter what the age of the retiree. This is necessary because working with concrete often causes severe health problems such as repetitive stress injuries, and early retirement is very common among the drivers. The workers are also asking for increased wages due to the high cost of living in the Seattle area.

After four months, the Teamsters Local 174 leadership has directed the workers to end their strike at least temporarily. ...

But the workers didn’t end the strike willingly; they were told to end it by the Teamsters Local 174 bureaucrats. Local 174 Secretary-Treasurer Rick Hicks had to be very persuasive to get the rank-and-file to return to work. "They didn't want people to think this fight is over because it's not. It's far from over,” he said, adding “not a single mixer driver changed their vote to strike, and they could have at any time."(7) This indicates that the issues that led to the strike are still not settled and the path to a satisfactory contract is not at all clear. But the union hacks told the workers that they were causing hardship for the other building trades workers who were laid off because concrete could not be poured. This was an excuse for calling for an end to the strike, and the workers have yielded to it for a while. But it is not clear how long this can be accepted.

This course of events was not inevitable. The union bureaucrats negotiating for the workers never set a strike date, and, all the time the carpenters were striking, did not present a contract for the concrete workers to vote on. They should have declared a strike in September while the carpenters were striking. Instead, they waited until November, and only agreed to a strike when the Gary Merlino workers presented them with a *fait accompli*. Striking while the carpenters were out would have bypassed the labor agreements that blunted the carpenters’ strike and brought about a much more powerful joint strike by the teamsters and the carpenters. ...


Full text at https://www.communistvoice.org/DSWV-220425.html.