Pipelines

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.

Read More “PLCA Says Teamsters “Misstate Facts” on Pipeline Strike”

Some 200 hundred Teamsters union members working on Marcellus Shale gas pipeline construction have walked out on strike in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and the strike could grow to more than 700 workers in the near future, according to a Teamsters press release (see below).

At issue is a contract up for renewal with the Pipe Line Contractors Association (PLCA). The PLCA wants to let workers provide for their retirement benefits using 401(k) plans instead of a traditional defined-benefit pension plan. A 401(k) provides for individual investments in stocks or mutual funds, and the Teamsters say that Wall Street investments are too risky for their members.

Read More “Teamsters Marcellus Pipeline Workers Walk Out on Strike”

There’s more than one way to get ethane to a cracker plant. MDN has chronicled the debate over whether pipelines to other regions like the Gulf Coast or Canada, or locally built ethane cracker (processing) plants, or a mix of the two, should be used to process the ethane-rich “wet gas” from the Marcellus and Utica Shales. Four ethane pipeline projects and at least one locally built ethane cracker plant have been promoted by various companies. Two of the four pipelines are “solid” and moving forward. The other two, according to one analyst, are in doubt (see this MDN story).

Read More “Mariner East Ethane Pipeline/Shipping Combo Still Alive”