HAYWARD, Calif. — Over 350 Teamster ready-mix concrete drivers at CalPortland in northern California ended a two-week strike Aug. 20, overwhelmingly ratifying a one-year contract. “I feel really good about it,” driver Rudy Gomez told the Militant. “They were trying to break our union, but we gave them a lot of trouble and they didn’t succeed!”
By striking at 15 locations in the Bay Area and beyond, the drivers put construction work on hold, including at the San Francisco airport. They won increases in wages, health benefits and a common contract expiration date.
The fight began when CalPortland, a subsidiary of the Taiheiyo Cement Corp. in Japan with operations along the U.S. and Canadian West Coast, purchased the California assets of Vulcan Materials, a competitor whose truck drivers were represented by four Teamster locals. At first CalPortland refused to keep the unionized Vulcan drivers. Then, as part of a settlement with the Justice Department, the company was ordered to rehire 90% of the Vulcan employees.
CalPortland then demanded that each of the four locals agree to separate negotiation dates. The company also implemented changes in contract language without the union’s agreement.
All four Teamster locals went on strike, making the victory possible. “By winning a common expiration date, we can strike together again, if we need to,” Gomez said.
“We voted to strike because we know the true value of our labor,” Gary Kunesh, a 30-year ready-mix member of Local 853, said in a union statement. “All of us were united and ready to stand on the line for as long as it took.”
When the picket line at CalPortland was taken down in Pinole, a city north of Oakland, Rudy Gomez took the leftover refreshments to locked-out Marathon refinery workers’ picket lines nearby.