Anchor Paper workers walking the picketline

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_4677

4 November 2010

ST. PAUL - Seventeen warehouse and delivery workers at St. Paul-based Anchor Paper went on strike at 5 p.m. Tuesday after voting to reject the company’s final contract offer.

The workers, represented by Teamsters Local 120, are maintaining a picket line outside the company’s warehouse at East 10th Street and Broadway, on the outskirts of downtown St. Paul.

Tom Ohlson, the Local 120 business agent who services the Anchor Paper bargaining unit, said his workers are taking a stand against the company’s attempt to stop contributing to their defined-benefit pension plan.

“The company is wanting to pull out of our pension,” Ohlson said. “They wanted to turn our health and welfare over into their own company’s health and welfare program.”

Workers with 25 years of experience at Anchor Paper would see their pension benefits slashed by up to 40 percent under the company’s proposal.

“It’s pretty dramatic,” Ohlson said. “They want to pull out of the pension, and they want our folks to pay for it.”


Members of Teamsters Local 120 picket outside Anchor Paper's warehouse in downtown St. Paul.

Photo by Michael Moore

FULL story at link.