Supreme Court Sides With Concrete Company Over Teamsters Strike

Construction Dive

The U.S. Supreme Court last week overturned a lower court’s decision, ruling against the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 174 in Washington state employed by Seattle-based concrete provider Glacier Northwest.

The union called for a work stoppage in 2017 in response to a collective bargaining agreement’s expiration, while the company was in the midst of mixing concrete into trucks for deliveries, according to court documents. At least 16 drivers who were on their way to pours returned with fully loaded trucks, leading Glacier to take emergency measures to offload the concrete in order to protect the vehicles from serious harm. Glacier asserted that in the process the concrete mix in the trucks was ruined.

Glacier sued over the ruined material, and the case was dismissed in Washington state court, which ruled it should be decided by the National Labor Relations Board. In an 8-1 decision on June 1, the Supreme Court reversed the decision, saying the court was wrong to dismiss the suit.

To read more about this case from our sister publication, Construction Dive, click here.