In the situation you describe (external friction or restraint), rapt, I agree with you. The OP did mention "foundation slabs", so I definitely get where you're coming from. I was isolating the stresses due to shrinkage alone, assuming that the external forces from restraint and flexure could and would be calculated and included by superposition to get the net forces and stresses in the reinforcement.
If you're saying there is localized tension in the steel at the crack locations, I can see that as at least possible. I don't know enough about interaction of the concrete and steel at the localized area of a cracked concrete section to disagree on that point.
Over the full length of the reinforcement, however, strain compatibility dictates that unless the strain in the steel increases (the reinforcing gets longer), there cannot be tension stress in the reinforcement. In a restrained beam or slab, the external restraint and the reinforcing steel are both working against the force generated by the concrete trying to shrink, trying to return the beam or slab to its original length (and the original length of the steel), but generally expanding beyond that original length. No stretching of the steel means no tension in the steel overall.