NEW YORK (AFX) - Heavy-equipment operators at the World Trade Center reconstruction site and 1,000 other city projects have agreed to end a weeklong strike, the mayor's office said Saturday.
Agreement was reached Friday between the General Contractors Association, individual contractors and representatives of the 3,200-member International Union of Operating Engineers. The association's contract with the union expired on July 1.
'This is a good deal for labor, a good deal for management, and a good deal for New York,' Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement.
Union members who had walked off the job included employees of companies building the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower and a transit hub at the trade center site. They planned to be back on the job Monday.
Other projects affected by the walkout were construction of a major new city water tunnel and the building of a $2 billion Goldman Sachs Group Inc. headquarters.
The agreement would give engineers who operate backhoes, drilling rigs, cranes and compressors a 5.25 percent raise for each of the next four years. It would require workers to be available for mechanical work while increasing their responsibilities for manning heavy equipment.
Neither officials of the contractors association nor union representatives answered telephones or returned messages Saturday.
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