After four months of delays and major construction projects still in limbo the concrete truck driver's union Teamsters Local 174 offered on Wednesday March 23 to move negotiations to arbitration. Seattle’s concrete companies – Cadman Materials, Inc., CalPortland, Salmon Bay Sand and Gravel Company and Stoneway Concrete – met with the union for five minutes before caucusing for 20 minutes and then did not provide a timeline for their response. 

The union’s offer to move negotiations to arbitration to help reach an agreement comes after Teamsters Local 174 requested to meet the bargaining representatives for the four companies last Friday over Zoom, only to have the companies delay negotiations to March 23.

“Every day that these concrete companies delay negotiations and drag out the strike, it hurts the people of Seattle,” said Rick Hicks, Teamsters Local 174 Secretary-Treasurer. “For quite some time, we’ve offered to work with the concrete companies to get critical infrastructure and housing projects back on track, and all they say is, ‘no,’ or they delay. We’ve even gone so far as to return members to work at Cadman and Salmon Bay because we care about our community. In every instance, the companies fail to step up for the people of Seattle by refusing or delaying negotiations. The offer to move toward arbitration shows the union’s commitment to getting a deal done. Now, the companies are once again taking valuable time away from our members and the community by delaying and not reaching any sort of agreement.”

“I’m one of the workers who returned to work, and I did it because I want Seattle to thrive, unlike the concrete companies. It is the concrete companies that are decimating our community, putting families at risk and ruining the livelihoods of thousands of workers with no regard for their impact on the people of Seattle and their workers who have made them successful,” said Todd Parker, a 25-year Cadman employee and a member of the Teamsters Local 174 Bargaining Committee.

The four concrete supply companies, Glacier Northwest, Stoneway Concrete, Salmon Bay Sand & Gravel and Cadman, Inc. have prepared the following statement in response.  

“On March 23, 2022, Teamsters 174 offered to allow employees to return to work if the four concrete supply companies agree to allow a third-party arbitrator to make business decisions regarding on-going labor negotiations for the companies. This is termed “Interest Based Arbitration”.

Interest Based Arbitration is typically used in the public sector when labor disagreements arise in professions like Police and Firefighters. It is highly unusual in this circumstance.  Because This is a complicated topic, the companies requested time to consider the Teamsters proposal.

Rather than respecting the Companies request to consider the offer, Teamsters 174 immediately released a previously prepared statement attacking the companies and asserting bad intentions.

Once again, it appears that the union is more interested in filing a salacious press release than finding a solution through meaningful negotiation. The companies are evaluating the offer and exploring possibilities for strikers returning to work.“

Some work is getting done. But some of the trucks lack current Department of Transportation. They are leased month to month and some are not up to date on oil changes and other maintenance. According to sources with the drivers 12 to 24 truckloads went out to sites in Mercer Island and Shoreline but none went to the West Seattle Bridge yet.