August 22, 2018
Operating engineers strike at area construction sites
- The strike affects crane operators, concrete pumpers, dirt and paving crews, and hoisting and material handling crews.
This Exxel Pacific tower crane wasn’t moving Tuesday afternoon at a Yesler Terrace housing project.
Members of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 302 voted to strike local job sites starting Tuesday.
The strike affects crane operators, concrete pumpers, dirt and paving crews, and hoisting and material handling crews.
Members turned down the second tentative agreement between union negotiators and the Associated General Contractors of Washington, which represents construction companies.
The strike affects Local 302 members in districts 1-4. It does not affect people working under project labor or community workforce agreements, and people working under the West Coast Drill Shaft and Refinery Building Trades agreements.
Crews at Skanska are not affected because Skanska uses a different collective bargaining agreement with a different expiration date.
The ballot count wasn’t immediately available.
The second tentative agreement offered workers a 15 percent increase in total compensation over three years. Hourly wages would have increased nearly 16 percent over three years. The current top level wage is $41.29 an hour and would have risen to $47.84.
In an Aug. 6 letter to union members, Daren Konopaski, Local 302 international vice president and business manger, wrote that the agreement was the contractors’ final offer.
The current contract expired June 1.
Copyright 2018 Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce
[gallery] shortcode not found inside [smart-grid][/smart-grid] shortcode