PLCA Says Teamsters “Misstate Facts” on Pipeline Strike

An update on the Teamsters’ strike that has brought Marcellus Shale pipeline construction to a halt in several locations. On Jan. 3, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) announced that as many as 700 pipeline construction workers were preparing to strike against the Pipe Line Contractors Association (PLCA) over a contract that originally expired in January 2011 but was extended until Dec. 31, 2011 (see this MDN story). The Teamsters said the PLCA “wants to force Teamsters into a 401(k) savings plan and ultimately eliminate all traditional defined benefit pensions.”

The PLCA has responded with their side of the story. Their response? The Teamsters “misstate the facts” of the dispute (i.e., they’re lying). The PLCA says they do not want to end traditional defined benefit pensions, and that if the PLCA were to put retirement benefits into the new pension fund preferred by the Teamsters, it would put workers’ retirement at risk as the new fund (like the old one in dispute) is nearing insolvency without a government bailout.

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