NEW YORK (AFX) - Contractors called off work at the World Trade Center site and more than 100 other spots across the city Saturday in anticipation of a strike by more than 3,000 heavy equipment operators, officials said.
A spokesman who answered the telephone at the International Union of Operating Engineers' Local 15 office Saturday refused to identify himself but said no contract agreement was in place with the General Contractors Association of Greater New York. He hung up when asked whether the workers had gone on strike when the midnight Friday deadline passed.
Contractors shut down their sites in anticipation of a walkout, said Chris Ward, managing director of the contractors association. The sites affected included a road rehabilitation project and a sewer repair project. After the July Fourth weekend, more than 1,000 sites could be affected, he said.
Spokesmen for trade center projects, including foundation work on the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower, said they called off their Saturday work in anticipation of a strike.
Talks with the workers, including crane operators and workers who operate drilling rigs, backhoes and compressors, broke down Thursday morning. No dates have been set for new talks.
Ward said earlier that the operating engineers, who make as much as $82 an hour, rejected an offer of 6 percent salary increases each year over five years, as well as a plan to retrain existing machinery operators whose jobs are no longer necessary because of new technology.
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