Vol. 79/No. 11      March 30, 2015

Militant

Picket line at BP refinery in Whiting, Ind., March 9. Unionists fighting for safety and to strengthen union on the job are still on strike around contract issues at refineries and chemical plants.

Oil workers went on strike Feb. 1, their first nationwide strike since 1980, fighting for more hiring, shorter hours, increased rest time and safer working conditions; to bring more maintenance workers into the union; and to keep the “retrogression clause,” which guarantees gains won in the past would continue.

In a press release the USW said the pattern agreement calls for reviews of staffing levels and status of maintenance workers as well as honoring previous contract agreements.

The four-year contract proposal sets wage increases of 2.5 percent the first year, 3 percent each of the next two, and 3.5 percent the last year. It maintains the current health care program, where the bosses pay 80 percent of the premium.

Meanwhile, picket lines remain at struck facilities and locals continue to organize strike solidarity rallies and win support from unions and other working people. The strike includes almost 7,000 workers at 15 refineries and petrochemical plants in seven states.

Battles at local level

“At the hotel where the negotiations took place we had a rally of over 100,” Martin said. “We had guys in the front and the back when the company came out for lunch. They huddled at the door and didn’t want to come out. We yelled, ‘We want a fair contract!’ And we were still there when they came back from lunch. They thought we would leave.”

“Our biggest concern is that BP proposes to expand the management rights section of the contract to remove the bargaining rights of the local,” Dave Danko, president of Steelworkers Local 7-1, representing more than 1,000 BP refinery workers here, told the Militant. In clauses like this, the bosses claim sole rights to determine conditions in the refinery. “The company will be able to dictate what we do and eliminate our say over working conditions. They want to make us a union in name only.”

“On March 19 we will march in front of BP headquarters in Chicago,” Danko said. “And we are organizing a rally in Whiting followed by a march to the refinery March 27. It will be attended by other unions affected by assaults on workers. All of the locals at area steel mills have been supporting us and they will be at the rally.”

“The national agreement addresses many issues better than I thought it would,” Michael McFadden, a member of Steelworkers Local 558 at the National Cooperative Refinery Association in McPherson, Kansas, and a member of the National Oil Policy Bargaining Committee, told the Militant. “How it will work will be local. There will be some tough battles at the local level.”

The Steelworkers say agreements are close at some of the large refineries. Motiva’s Port Arthur, Texas, refinery, the largest in the country, is closest, USW spokeswoman Lynne Hancock told the Houston Chronicle March 16.

“Marathon in Texas City has offered the national contract, but with extreme concessions, so we’re not even close,” said Lee Medley, president of Steelworkers Local 13-1 in Texas City, Texas, in an interview with the Militant.

At the LyondellBasell refinery in Houston the company broke off negotiations with Steelworkers Local 13-227, claiming the “union needed a cooling off period.” Joshua Lege, an officer of the local, told the Chronicle that this was a “stalling tactic.”

“The strike has galvanized us,” Clint Clark, a phenol unit operator and union steward at the Shell refinery in Deer Park, Texas, told the Militant. “The company forced us to picket right next to the highway, and they removed our portable toilets from company property. We even confronted a serious union-busting back-to-work campaign.

“We refused to accept a contract unless it included all of our previous gains, like seniority, bidding rights and union safety reps,” Clark said. “The solidarity and support we’ve received on the picket lines, at rallies and in the union hall has been tremendous. We can’t do this alone.”

Clark said he and some other workers are concerned about the pattern contract language on “staffing” and “fatigue.” “It leaves the final decision up to the company,” he said.

‘Strike has united us’

“I’ve worked for nonunion contractors before,” said Caleb Rabalais, a member of Local 13-1 on strike against Shell in Deer Park. “Sometimes the bosses treat you like you’re just a number, not even human. They say, ‘If you don’t like it, hit the road. There’s a long line of people who will take your place.’ But now I’ve seen what it means to have a union to stand up together and defend the safety and dignity of every member.”

In Martinez, California, more than 100 people took part in a family day March 14 at the main gate of the Tesoro refinery where Steelworkers Local 5 is on strike. Hot dogs were provided and games for the kids. “We may not have completed the strike yet, but we’ve accomplished a lot. The strike has united all of us union members in different refineries here,” Criff Reyes, a picket captain, told the Militant.

“When this is over, we’ll have to go to other pickets,” John Anderson, a striker at Tesoro in Anacortes, Washington, told the Militant March 16. “Look at the farmworkers who have been taken advantage of. We’ll have to help them.” The bulletin board at Steelworkers Local 12-591 headquarters in Anacortes is covered with solidarity messages from other unions. Members of the local spoke at an International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 19 meeting in Seattle the week before.

Patti Iiyama, a retired refinery worker in Martinez, California; Mark Simon in Houston; and John Naubert in Anacortes, Washington, contributed to this article.
 
 
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