USW union workers add two BP refineries to strike list
Union workers at two BP PLC-owned refineries in Indiana and Ohio have joined the United Steelworkers union’s (USW) unfair labor practice (ULP) strike against the oil industry that began on Feb. 1 after a breakdown in discussions with companies regarding collective bargaining agreements over pay, benefits, and health and safety standards (OGJ Online, Feb. 6, 2015).
USW gave BP management notice on Feb. 6 that about 1,100 members of USW Local 7-1 at its 413,000-b/d Whiting, Ind., refinery and some 340 members of Local 346-3 at its 160,000-b/d Toledo, Ohio, refinery, a 50-50 joint venture with Husky Energy Inc., would join nearly 3,800 USW oil workers already on a ULP strike at nine refineries in California, Kentucky, Texas, and Washington, the union said.
Workers at BP’s Whiting and Toledo refineries were scheduled to join the ULP strike as of 12:01 a.m. on Feb. 8, expanding to 11 the total count of US refineries and petrochemical production plants included in the strike, USW said.
“After long days of discussions with the industry’s lead company, [Royal Dutch Shell PLC], little progress has been made on our members’ central issues concerning health and safety, fatigue, inadequate staffing levels that differ from what is shown on paper, contracting out of daily maintenance jobs, high out-of-pocket and health care costs,” said Gary Beevers, USW international vice-president and head of the union’s National Oil Bargaining Program (NOBP).
“In addition, Shell has failed to accept the ‘no-retrogression’ language that refers to acceptance of previous agreements with the industry,” Beevers added.
Negotiation talks stalled
Negotiations between USW and oil industry representatives are on a temporary hiatus, while USW waits for the companies to comply with a long-pending information request, the union reported.
In a Feb. 9 statement posted to its web site, Shell said it looked forward to resuming negotiations with USW on Feb. 10. Meantime, operations remain ongoing at the company’s 340,000-b/d Deer Park, Tex., refinery and associated petrochemicals plant.
“As part of Shell’s contingency plans, we have fully trained and qualified employees who continue to operate our Deer Park plant during the strike,” the company said, adding that maintaining operations at the site could and would be done safely.
While Shell reiterated its commitment to resolving the dispute, the company has declined to disclose specific details regarding the ongoing negotiations.
“Due to the active negotiations, we would prefer not to discuss what’s being negotiated,” Shell said in a Feb. 7 statement.
In its Feb. 7 release, however, USW said in addition to health and safety issues, the ULP strike is over the oil companies’ bad-faith bargaining, undue delays in providing information, impeded bargaining, and threats issued to workers if they joined the ULP strike.
A timeframe for resolution remains unclear.
Other impacted sites
In addition to Shell’s Deer Park operations and BP’s Whiting and Toldeo refineries, the strike also continues to impact the following sites:
• LyondellBasell’s 268,000-b/d Houston refinery.
• Marathon Petroleum Corp.’s 451,000-b/d Galveston Bay, Tex., refinery and associated South Houston Green Power cogeneration plant, as well as its 242,000-b/d Catlettsburg, Ky., refinery.
• Tesoro Corp.’s 120,000-b/d Anacortes, Wash., refinery, 166,000-b/d Martinez, Calif., refinery, and the Carson portion of its 363,000-b/d Los Angeles refinery.
On Feb. 2, Tesoro announced it would suspend all processing units at its Martinez refinery to ensure the safety of workers in the process of conducting regularly scheduled maintenance activities that, prior to the strike, would have required suspending operations at only a few of the plant’s units.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
