By Krissah Williams
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 4, 2006; D04

About 80 Waste Management Inc. workers began striking yesterday in Prince George's County, with two dozen forming a picket line outside the Temple Hills offices, protesting a company proposal to eliminate a pension in favor of a 401(k) savings plan.

The employees, members of Teamsters Local 639, have been working without a contract with the Houston-based company for four months. Negotiations began in October and stalled in December.

The strike did not disrupt trash pickup in Prince George's, where the company services several neighborhoods and businesses, company spokeswoman Lisa Kardell said. Waste Management, the nation's largest sanitation company with nearly 30 million residential and commercial customers, is facing similar protests in cities across the country because of cuts in pensions and other benefits.

At issue is Waste Management's plan to convert the union's pension plan, which is partially funded by the company, into a 401(k) retirement plan that would not receive a corporate match for employee contributions.

Businesses in many industries have begun shifting from pension plans, which have defined benefits for employees, to 401(k) plans, under which workers decide their contributions, up to a legal limit. While an employer takes the investment risk in a pension plan, the employee takes that risk under a 401(k). Most recently, International Business Machines Corp. made the change in January, spurring heated protest among some of its workers.

Vested pension holders would not lose the money they have already put into Waste Management's pension plan, but Kardell could not say whether those pensions would be paid out or rolled into the 401(k) plan.

"Our best and final offer is more than fair and is at or above the average benefit for the industry and the area," Kardell said.

The workers, who said they could not afford to lose the pension plan, marched in drizzling rain yesterday holding posters to announce the strike. Brian Edmonds was 21 when he started with the company 10 years ago. He invested in the pension plan, expecting it to take care of him in retirement. Now he is unsure.

"I'm worried about my health and [financial] welfare," Edmonds said.