Vol. 79/No. 15 April 27, 2015
The Steelworkers strike also continues at four other oil refineries and plants where the bosses refuse to agree with a national pattern contract with Shell Oil reached a month ago. Along with LyondellBasell, bosses at Marathon’s refinery and cogeneration facility in Texas City, Texas; at the BP-Husky refinery in Toledo, Ohio; and at the BP refinery in Whiting, Indiana, are holding out, hoping to extract concessions from the local unions.
The nationwide strike, the first since 1980, started Feb. 1. At its height 15 refineries and petrochemical plants nationwide were struck by nearly 7,000 union members. After they approved local agreements and the oil bosses signed on to the national agreement, unionists returned to work at 10 of the struck facilities.
The rally cry of the strike is safety. The unionists are fighting for the companies to hire more workers and stop forcing them to work 12-hour shifts seven days a week for weeks on end, with forced overtime to boot. They are demanding more of the thousands of contract workers in the refineries be represented by the Steelworkers.
LyondellBasell’s offer would have eliminated premium pay for work on normally scheduled workdays when workers have put in 40 hours by working their scheduled days off. Given excessive overtime at the refinery, Lege estimates that the average employee would lose between $500 and $1,000 every month. He said the agreement has been in contracts for six decades as a deterrent to excessive overtime.
LyondellBasell management accused the union of taking “an intractable stance.” In a letter to employees, Executive Vice President Kevin Brown declared talks at “an impasse” and said the company would implement the terms of the final offer. “With full appreciation and respect for your legal right to strike and remain off work, we believe that doing so is not in your best economic interest.”
“This is a worthy cause of the workers and the community,” Dan Hammock told the Militant on the picket line at LyondellBasell April 11. Hammock, a console operator for nine years, said he is proud of his participation in the strike. “In the past, the more we gave up in concessions, the more they wanted. These are shark-infested waters. And like sharks, they smell blood.”
“If the company wanted to, they could have resolved this strike in three days,” said Ken Wells, who was picketing with Hammock. “This is about union busting. They want to see how long we can last.”
Talks have resumed between BP and Steelworkers Local 7-1 in Whiting. “We are taking it day by day,” Tom Gajewski, chief operator at the refinery there, told the Militant. “We have gotten a lot of support from the community — everything from food to wood. People from Fight for $15 came out to our union hall. I used to be a fast-food worker in high school. The cost of living keeps going up and pay is stagnant.”
Meanwhile, Exxon Mobil rejected the union’s contract offer at the refinery in Beaumont, Texas. Workers there are not on strike, having continued on the job on 24-hour rolling extensions of the previous contract, as was the case at a number of other refineries. The company refused to sign on to the national pattern agreement, saying they wanted a longer contract.
“The Company no longer believes that Beaumont’s participation in pattern bargaining is beneficial,” said the company’s so-called Employee Information Bulletin, “and we are pursuing an off pattern agreement to get long-term certainty for our business and employees.”
Anne Parker in Whiting, Indiana, contributed to this article.
Related articles:
Boston march of 3,000 kicks off April 15 actions for $15 and a union
Mexican farmworkers win 15% raise, will keep fighting
On the Picket Line
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