Union rejects sixth refinery offer from Shell, talks recess

yahoo ^ | 2/5/2015 | Erwin Seba Reuters

[mdittmar]

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Union leaders on Thursday rejected the sixth contract offer Royal Dutch Shell made to U.S. refinery workers and a pause in negotiations was called on the fifth day of a strike, though talks are expected to resume.

[mdittmar]

Companies have called in trained non-union workers to keep plants running almost as normal.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Fire their asses!

[SeeSharp]

[mdittmar]

Lock them out,obviously they are not needed.

[Enten]

Run it permanently with non union personnel.

[BwanaNdege]

Obama is NOT HAPPY with the low gas prices.

[econjack]

You have to wonder about the IQ of the union leadership. High fuel costs have dominated the landscape for at least five years. Then, after fuel prices have tanked to the lowest point in years, that's when these geniuses decide to go on strike. It reminds me of when Caesar Chevez was striking the lettuce growers and George McGovern was running for President. There he was with Caesar saying: "I'm not going to eat another leaf of lettuce until the lettuce growers give the United Farm Workers a living wage!"

Exactly the wrong thing to do.

An effective boycott lowers prices of the unpicked lettuce by decreasing demand. This means less revenue to the owners and, hence, less ability to give them a pay increase. Also, since the crop in the field is now worth less, their incentive to meet the union demands goes down.

What would happen had stupid said instead: "I'm going to eat 5 salads a day and hope everyone else will, too." Then the price of lettuce in the field goes up and the cost of disagreeing also goes up, plus the farmer now has more revenue from which to pay a wage increase.

Too many people are like George...clueless.

[jdsteel]

Slightly different note, why don’t you ask those union guys what they think of the keystone XL pipeline?

[05 Mustang GT Rocks]

you are absolutely correct but you have to factor in post number 6. Khalif Barak is very unhappy with that the little people are getting a break at the pump. Hence, the union thugs go on strike. I join the call to fire their communist red asses.

[05 Mustang GT Rocks]

I apologize for the typos. Can’t talk and type at the same time.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I went through a strike like this one but with a different union. The engineers in the office were our first line, then the salesmen, received refinery assignments. The replacements were locked in for several weeks. Food was choppered in. Steaks, lobster, but sadly, no wine...
Then, the union was let back in.

[Redbob]

"Companies have called in trained non-union workers to keep plants running almost as normal."

One would think they would; Texas is, after all, a Right to Work state, so Shell could just as easily replace all the strikers.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Probably from companies that do turnarounds...

[1010RD]

Government needs to do this.

[Rembrandt]

“I went through a strike like this one but with a different union. The engineers in the office were our first line, then the salesmen, received refinery assignments. The replacements were locked in for several weeks. Food was choppered in. Steaks, lobster, but sadly, no wine...”

I’ve seen this scenario in different industries. Typically, the Management people set efficiency/output records that the Union can never achieve, not that they want to.

[Rembrandt]

“Probably from companies that do turnarounds...”

I thought about that, but I’ll bet anything that the union contract specifies that union laborers are paid (plus all benefits) during any and all turnarounds.