A white pick-up truck approached the driveway into Rum River Lumber, encountered striking workers on a picket line, then backed up and drove away.

"Most of the people turn around and go elsewhere," said Jay Hartje, Andover, a 13-year Rum River employee and a shop steward for Teamsters Local 120. "There are a lot of lumber yards around."

Teamsters Local 120 recently settled contracts with four metro area lumber yards, winning pay raises and maintaining pension benefits.

At Rum River Lumber in Coon Rapids, however, the company owner unexpectedly insisted that a new five-year contract drop the company-funded pension plan and instead offered workers a new 401(k) plan. He was not willing to pay the administrative costs of moving to the new plan. The proposal was unacceptable to the workers, who voted 20 to 1 to strike April 11.

"I don't see any end in sight," said Dave Schrunk, business agent for Teamsters Local 120. "The company is not cooperating at all," he said, adding that "they've hired permanent replacements."

The 21 members of the Teamsters Local 120 unit at Rum River Lumber work as yardmen, drivers, mill workshop workers or window shop workers. Altogether, they have put in 260 years at the company.

"Every one of these guys, they've worked their butts off for this company," said Douglas Dorn, Oak Grove, a 17-year employee.

Rum River Lumber is owned by Brian Berglin, who bought the business in 1988. The business has been a union shop for about 30 years.

"We had a pretty decent relationship," said Hartje. "We never really had a problem.

"We've always had decent contracts and the pension has always been included," Hartje added. "We never heard any talk of ending the pension.

"We didn't want any bumps in the pension, Hartje noted. "We just wanted to keep what we had." Under the previous contract, the company paid $85 per week per worker into the Teamsters' Central States Pension plan.

From left, Jay Hartje, 13-year employee; Raymond Guimont, 2-year employee; and Kevin Jacobson, 7-year employee, picket outside Rum River Lumber. Collectively, the 21 Teamsters now on strike have worked 260 years at the company. Minneapolis Labor Review photo

Hartje said the company has enjoyed record sales for each of the 13 years he's worked there. He said the union estimated that the company earned $3 million from in-store sales and walk-ins last year and $25 million in contract sales, primarily to contractors building new homes.

Since the strike began, he added, "their in-store sales and walk-in trade is down to just about nothing."

But, after nine weeks, the strike is taking its toll on the workers, too. "There's a lot of guys starting to struggle," Hartje noted. Their company-funded health insurance expired April 29. Strike pay is $235 per week.

"The longer it goes, the tougher it gets," Hartje said.

With so many of the workers invested in the pension plan, Hartje said, asking them to start over with a new 401(k) plan just didn?t make sense.

No. 1 on the seniority list is Dave Reed, Big Lake, who has worked 17 years at Rum River Lumber and is just four years away from retirement. "If I don't get my last four years in," he said, "I lose $1,410 per month in retirement pay." He said his projected pension would drop from $2,000 monthly to $590. He added: "that's my wife's pension, too.

"This is like a bad dream," Reed said. "Five days a week I was trying to make them money. Now I'm trying to take it away.

"I thought I'd be here until I retire," Reed said. "I only have three and one-half years left until I'm 62. Who's going to hire me? I'm an old man."

Douglas Dorn, 17-year employee: "Every one of these guys, they've worked their butts off for this company." Labor Review photo

While some of the nation's largest corporations are abandoning pension plans in the face of financial difficulties, that's not the case at Rum River Lumber for Brian Berglin.

"It's not right," Hartje said. "He's got a prospering business.

"The point is we've been working for this company, helped to get it to where it's at," said Dorn. "We were a team. We helped to get good sales."

Since Berglin bought the company Dorn said, sales have increased from about $2.2 million in sales to the current $28 million. "How can you do that without good help?"

Dorn said he never imagined that the current impasse would happen at Rum River Lumber. In many ways, the small workforce ? together with management ? were like a family. Indeed, owner Brian Berglin's wife is the sister of one of the striking Teamsters members.

"We go ice fishing together, we go hunting together, we go to birthdays. We're a pretty tight group," Dorn said.

Dorn said he had watched Berglin's sons grow up from a young age and did work for the Berglin family at their home.

"We just want to negotiate a fair settlement for both sides," Dorn said. Meanwhile, the mood on the picket line is tense. One striker was hit by a company truck and ended up in the emergency room. Security guards hired by the company watch the entry drive at all times, three during the day, two at night. Whenever a vehicle enters or leaves, the security personnel videotape the picketers.

The day a reporter visited, strikers said the company had set up a loudspeaker near the fence, loudly blaring a Rum River Lumber radio ad over and over and over again on a repeating loop.

"People rely on Rum River, because we deliver," the jingle rang out. "Let the pros at Rum River Lumber Company help you."

"This is harassment," said George Baving, vice president of Teamsters Local 974, commenting on the loudspeaker.

"It's a battle every day," he said. "These guys are fighting for their lives." Rum River Lumber is located at 10141 Woodcrest Dr., near the intersection of Highway 10 and Foley Boulevard in Coon Rapids. The striking members of Teamsters Local 120 are maintaining a picket line from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. They welcome union members to join them there.

Steve Share edits the Minneapolis Labor Review, the official publication of the Minneapolis Central Labor Union Council. E-mail him at laborreview@mplscluc.com or visit the labor council's website, www.minneapolisunions.org