Cadman Seattle’s postponement further delays critical infrastructure and low-income housing projects; Meanwhile, ready-mix concrete drivers are already back at work at local company Salmon Bay Sand & Gravel

(SEATTLE) – After striking for more than four months to demand that their employers stop violating federal labor law, on Monday, over forty ready-mix concrete drivers and support staff who work at Cadman’s ready-mix concrete facility on East Marginal Way and Salmon Bay’s ready-mix concrete facility in Ballard agreed to return to work. The good-faith gesture from the Teamsters will allow a number of key infrastructure and construction projects to resume after being shut down for several months. 

As of this morning, Salmon Bay ready-mix drivers are back at work, but Cadman has refused to return its Seattle mixer drivers in a timely manner or provide them with a return date. This will further impact key projects, including repairs to the West Seattle Bridge, Sound Transit’s expansion projects, the Convention Center expansion, the Highway 520 restoration project, critical low-income housing projects and countless other public and private construction projects. 

“Although there is substantial evidence of collusion between Cadman, owned by Germany’s HeidelbergCement, and its partner companies, Gary Merlino Construction/Stoneway Concrete and CalPortland, to artificially increase the price of concrete in our region and break our union along with other building trades unions, we decided that we could no longer allow these companies to continue destroying our community,” said Todd Parker, a concrete mixer driver with Cadman. “I’m extremely disappointed that Cadman and its management in Germany continue to demonstrate their blatant disregard for everyone who has been adversely affected in our region by their anticompetitive business practices and union-busting.”

 Hundreds of Local 174 mixer and dump truck drivers employed by CalPortland, Stoneway Concrete, Gary Merlino Construction, and Cadman’s ready-mix facilities located in Bellevue, Redmond, and Issaquah continue to strike to protest the companies’ mounting violations of federal labor laws.  

“Unfortunately, we are dealing with a concrete cartel abusing its power and holding our community hostage,” said Tim Davis, a concrete mixer driver with Stoneway Concrete. “Most recently, the companies have unlawfully refused to stop conspiring during negotiations. Gary Merlino Construction, which owns Stoneway Concrete, is demanding that it will only sign a contract with its workers if they agree to cross picket lines.” 

To date, the unlawful actions of Cadman, CalPortland and their respective parent companies HeidelbergCement and Japan’s Taiheiyo Cement, along with Gary Merlino Construction and its subsidiary Stoneway Concrete, have led to: the price of concrete more than tripling in Seattle; the layoffs of thousands workers in the construction industry; contractors losing millions of dollars in delays; and hundreds of dangerous “Outlaw” and “Ghost” mixer trucks coming into Seattle-area communities and placing the general public at risk. 

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