HOUSTON, Feb 21 (Reuters) – The U.S. refinery strike widened on its twentieth day, with staff at the nation’s largest refinery strolling off jobs and joining picket lines on Saturday because the United Steelworkers union (USW) pushes for a new contract that improves wages and security.
Strikes are underway or have been referred to as at 15 plants, together with 12 refineries with a fifth of U.S. crude processing capacity. The stoppages, which have forced corporations to depend on skilled non permanent workers to maintain plants working close to normal, are the most important within the refining sector since 1980.
Shortly after talks between union and oil firm representatives ended on Friday night time, the union notified Motiva Enterprises of a strike by its members at the corporate’s 600,250 barrel per day (bpd) refinery in Port Arthur, Texas.
USW members are also scheduled to go on strike by 12 a.m. Sunday at Motiva’s 235,000 bpd Convent, Louisiana and 238,000 bpd Norco, Louisiana refineries and the Shell Oil Co chemical plant in Norco, the union said.
“The business’s refusal to meaningfully deal with safety points by way of good faith bargaining gave us no different option however to increase our work stoppage,” USW International President Leo Gerard mentioned in a statement.
As of Saturday, no new talks had been scheduled between the 2 sides.
Motiva was targeted for the strikes because it is a 50-50 joint enterprise of Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Saudi Aramco . Shell’s U.S. arm Shell Oil Co is the lead oil company negotiator in talks with the USW for a national agreement on security, pay and benefits.
Shell and the USW had been near an settlement for a brand new contract on Friday night, however different oil corporations were unwilling to accept the bargain, mentioned sources familiar with the talks.
“As the lead company, Shell has the position to get the oil companies to come along,” said one of many sources. “The (union) management group determined Shell wanted to be placed on the record of targeted firms.”
A Shell spokesman said the corporate was dissatisfied by the Port Arthur walkout and strike notices to the Louisiana plants.
In a letter Shell has despatched to putting staff at its Deer Park, Texas, refinery and chemical plant, a duplicate of which was seen by Reuters, the company stated the key sticking point was non-union contractors who perform every day maintenance, which the USW want to see changed with union employees.
The company stated it needed flexibility.
“Hiring flexibility is a proven way to protect our core Shell workforce and the long-term financial viability of our workforce,” the letter mentioned. “This strategy has served us all well, as we haven’t had to conduct any layoffs in decades.”
The strike that began Feb. 1 was last expanded Feb. 6, when staff at BP Plc-operated refineries in Indiana and Ohio have been told to begin a work stoppage the next day.
Employees have been already on strike at Shell’s 327,000 bpd joint-enterprise refinery in Deer Park because the strike began on Feb. 1.
MOTIVA Points
The Motiva walkout may complicate operations at the Port Arthur refinery, which has a number of items shut however did return its second largest crude distillation unit (CDU) to full manufacturing on Friday evening.
The 195,000 bpd CDU is one in every of three on the refinery that do the preliminary refining of crude oil coming into the plant and supply feedstock for all different production items.
The refinery’s largest CDU, which has a rated capability of 325,000 bpd is working at about 200,000 bpd, the sources mentioned, because a 60,000 bpd hydrocracking unit is shut as a consequence of a malfunction. The hydrocracker produces motor gasoline, primarily diesel, which has turn into a profitable export for U.S. refiners.
Motiva also shut a ninety two,000 bpd gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit on the refinery in early January for an overhaul. It’s scheduled to restart in the primary half of March.
