Teamster pipeliners striking

Our pipeliner brothers and sisters are going out on strike. The pipeline association representing employers wants to gut their retirement security by replacing their pensions with crap shoot 401(k) retirement plans. Two hundred Teamsters in Pennsylvania and West Virginia have walked off the job, and as many as 500 may follow.

Said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa,

The association’s ultimate goal is to gut workers’ security and gamble their retirement in the stock market with a 401(k) plan. This is yet another example of the rich getting richer on the backs of the middle class.

It’s not enough for this rich industry to be gouging Americans struggling to pay their gas and heating bills. Now the industry is trying to squeeze its workers too.

The Journal of Commerce reports,

The union Tuesday said more than 200 workers had walked off job sites...The Teamster contract with the PCLA, which represents more than 70 companies that build and maintain gas and oil pipelines, expired Dec. 31, 2011.

Contact your local to see if you're affected.