NEW YORK - Hundreds of cement-mixing truck drivers have gone on strike, disrupting work at the largest construction projects in the city, including the World Trade Center site.
More than 400 drivers for Local 282 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters walked out on talks with the Association of New York City Concrete Producers after the union's contract expired at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.
The union said it failed to agree on wages and work conditions after weeks of negotiations. It wouldn't give specifics.
“Although issues still divide us, there have been ongoing and good-faith efforts by the parties to reach an agreement that will be fair and equitable to all concerned,” the union local and the concrete makers' association said in a joint statement Wednesday.
New talks were not expected to begin until Monday, effectively stopping the concrete supply to hundreds of projects, including the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower, the Sept. 11 memorial and a $2 billion-plus transit hub at ground zero.
Concrete deliveries had been scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday for those three projects, although other work continued and “we expect to mitigate any impact,” said Candace McAdams, spokeswoman for the trade center's owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Few sites in the city planned work after Thursday because of the Fourth of July holiday weekend, and sites have different schedules for pouring concrete.
Fifty concrete-mixing trucks were idle at Quadrozzi Concrete Corp., which supplies the trade center site and projects including a 35-story office tower near Times Square and a 76-story, Frank Gehry-designed apartment building and school in downtown Manhattan.
“We didn't think that it would come to a strike,” company president John Quadrozzi Jr. said.
After a report this week said every ground zero project is delayed and over budget, he said, “it's very bad timing. ... It's sort of like a slap in the face to take such an aggressive approach.”
The cement-truck drivers have to operate the mixer that churns the wet concrete. A city building boom has made coordination of the deliveries a priority; wet concrete that sits too long - more than an hour or so - can't be poured.
A spokeswoman for the New York Yankees said the construction of a new stadium in the Bronx wouldn't be affected by the strike. Most concrete has already been poured for the stadium, set to open in 2009.
A number of condominium projects under construction were affected.
A weeklong walkout by a union representing 3,200 crane and heavy-equipment operators before the last Fourth of July weekend stalled work at the World Trade Center site and 1,000 other projects.
The union said it failed to agree on wages and work conditions after weeks of negotiations. It wouldn't give specifics.
“Although issues still divide us, there have been ongoing and good-faith efforts by the parties to reach an agreement that will be fair and equitable to all concerned,” the union local and the concrete makers' association said in a joint statement Wednesday.
New talks were not expected to begin until Monday, effectively stopping the concrete supply to hundreds of projects, including the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower, the Sept. 11 memorial and a $2 billion-plus transit hub at ground zero.
Concrete deliveries had been scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday for those three projects, although other work continued and “we expect to mitigate any impact,” said Candace McAdams, spokeswoman for the trade center's owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Few sites in the city planned work after Thursday because of the Fourth of July holiday weekend, and sites have different schedules for pouring concrete.
Fifty concrete-mixing trucks were idle at Quadrozzi Concrete Corp., which supplies the trade center site and projects including a 35-story office tower near Times Square and a 76-story, Frank Gehry-designed apartment building and school in downtown Manhattan.
“We didn't think that it would come to a strike,” company president John Quadrozzi Jr. said.
After a report this week said every ground zero project is delayed and over budget, he said, “it's very bad timing. ... It's sort of like a slap in the face to take such an aggressive approach.”
The cement-truck drivers have to operate the mixer that churns the wet concrete. A city building boom has made coordination of the deliveries a priority; wet concrete that sits too long - more than an hour or so - can't be poured.
A spokeswoman for the New York Yankees said the construction of a new stadium in the Bronx wouldn't be affected by the strike. Most concrete has already been poured for the stadium, set to open in 2009.
A number of condominium projects under construction were affected.
A weeklong walkout by a union representing 3,200 crane and heavy-equipment operators before the last Fourth of July weekend stalled work at the World Trade Center site and 1,000 other projects.
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