More than 500 New York City and Albany, N.Y., mixer truck drivers returned to work in mid-July after strikes that began the first of the month, a day after contracts expired. In the Big Apple, where work on stadiums for the Yankees and Mets baseball teams and high-rise residential and commercial development has created one of the country's healthiest construction markets, about 450 members of the Teamsters Local 282, Brooklyn, reached tentative agreement with the Association of New York City Concrete Producers Inc. and Quadrozzi Concrete.

A signatory on the expired contract, Quadrozzi Concrete settled with its 50 Local 282-represented drivers just before the Association deal. Sensitive to delays on a handful of key jobs, the company sought to expedite drivers' return by negotiating separately. It holds supply contracts on two World Trade Center site projects, the Freedom Tower and Transportation Hub/PATH Station, and five other high profile jobs in Manhattan. Terms of the Quadrozzi and Association contracts were not disclosed; in its strike coverage, however, the New York Times noted that Local 282 concrete drivers were receiving upward of $60/hour in wages and benefits under the expiring contract.

In upstate New York, more than 100 Teamsters Local 294-represented workers for Cranesville Management Co., Callanan Industries, and Bonded Concrete ended a week-long strike July 14. They approved a four-year contract with what union officials noted were strong increases in wages and pension and health care contributions.