Seattle concrete workers threaten to strike
Jun 14, 2023, 2:55 PM
A year after a Seattle-area concrete worker’s strike ended, another group of concrete workers threatens to hit the picket lines. (Photo by Eduardo Maquilon/Getty Images)
(Photo by Eduardo Maquilon/Getty Images)
A year after a Seattle-area concrete worker’s strike ended, another group of concrete workers threatens to hit the picket lines.
The last strike went more than four months and brought construction projects across western Washington to a halt.
Since then — drivers at Corliss Resources voted to unionize.
Jamie Fleming with Teamsters 174 said they have authorized a strike if contract negotiations fail.
“So drivers at Corliss Resources voted to join Teamsters Local last fall. They were certified by the National Labor Relations Board, at the beginning of November,” Fleming said.
“So that means that has been seven months since they became Teamsters, and started negotiating a contract. And in those months, they’ve only met with us six times to try and bargain which of course, is not going to get it done, especially on the first contract.”
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Fleming said that contract negotiations tend to take a long time, but she calls the pace of these negotiations “glacial.” She said that’s why the union decided to take a strike vote.
“Any strike that’s using Corliss could be a problem if a strike is called,” Fleming said.
We’ve reached out to Corliss for comment.
In April 2022, hundreds of Seattle-area concrete mixer drivers returned to work without a contract. Teamsters 174 represented those workers as well.
“So it’s not the same group. But there’s definitely overlap. And in fact, there are some drivers that correlate right now who I immediately recognized [from] the strike vote because they were formerly working at different concrete companies as Teamsters. So there’s definitely a lot of overlap,” Fleming said.
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