Posted on 03/08/2015 12:14:24 PM PDT by Lorianne
The first nationwide oil refinery strike in more than 30 years expanded this weekend in a labor dispute that may start having more of an impact on the price consumers pay for gasoline.
The United Steelworkers union (USW) said Saturday that workers at the largest refinery in the U.S., the Motiva Enterprises refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, started their strike at midnight Friday. Employees at two other refineries and a chemical plant in Louisiana started their strike at the end of Saturday.
The USW represents workers at 65 refineries that produce about two-thirds of the oil in the U.S
The union said in a statement that it expanded a strike that started Feb. 1 at refineries largely in Texas and California because the industry has refused to "meaningfully address" safety issues through good-faith bargaining. The union also wants to discuss staffing levels and seeks limits on the use of contractors to replace union members in doing daily maintenance work.
The union started negotiating a new contract Jan. 21 with Shell Oil Co., which is serving as the lead company in national bargaining talks.
The Port Arthur strike expansion adds another 1,350 union-represented workers to the strike, which began mostly in Texas and California, reports CBS affiliate KHOU-TV in Houston. It later grew to include Ohio and Indiana refineries.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
“safety issues”. believe that is commie-speak for less work and more pay.
Safety issues? Is there no OSHA?
Walker 2016?
We have the right to work.
Crude oil is rapidily filling up storage tanks and a strike downstream is really untimely for the market, although advantageous for the union negotiations. A well timed effort on the union’s part.
Robots are better than ObamaBots
Led by California Refinery Workers Union. Because a 70 cents increase per gallon isn’t enough for the biggest Welfare State in the Union.
Back in 2010 I worked on a fiber-optics installation at a refinery in Beaumont, TX. We had to go through a formal safety school to become safety certified before setting foot on the job site.
The safety precautions would do an ammo dump proud!
Greenies, commies and other watermelons hate it that gas is once again affordable, boosting the economy and helping the bottom half of the economic spectrum.
Obama & Co. need another crisis.
Gas has gone up at least a dollar since these pricks started their little game, so you know there is no one in state or fed gov. that has any desire to see it stop and curtail their tax revenue.
Of the 12 refineries on strike, only one is shut down. The others continue to operate with nonunion engineers, managers and contractors. The CA refinery shut down was already half down for other work.
Refineries and Chemical plants are amazingly more safe (and CLEANER) than when I first started working in them in the late 70s. Statistically, you are safer at work in a refinery than you are at home. MUCH safer.
The real sticking point is the International wants ALL refinery workers, building trades and even non-union under their union. It is a numbers and power game that is going on.
This is not making the IBEW, Pipefitter, Boilermekers and Carpenters happy...
If they’re on strike, they’re not workers any more. They’re former workers. Quitters. Troublemakers.
Even back in the early 1970’s you couldn’t enter refineries property with a lighter or matches in your pocket.
If you were caught with a lighter or matches on the property you were escorted off by guards and you couldn’t enter the property again.
We were working about a 1/2mile from the refinery itself but inside the fence around the refinery. Open field between us and the refinery.
We were only about 40-50ft from the gate but the guy that smoked had to leave his lighter with the guard at the gate and walk out of the gate to smoke.
Given that a refinery is likely to have pipes filled with substances that are some combination of Caustic, Hot, High Pressure, and Flammable, the Ammo Dump is possibly safer.
Ping.
Is there an effort to train non union oil engineers and others who recently were in the field drilling, etc. - to do the refinery tasks.
Would it take weeks or months ?
Years ago, when I was a teenager, my father, a construction super, took me to the Baton Rouge Exxon Refinery. As we went through the gate, I remember a sign saying: “No Visitors, No Cameras, No Smoking” I looked over at my father, who had a cigarette in his mouth and there was a camera on the dashboard of his company truck. I was, of course, the visitor.
I know Shell is training other folks, probably others as well. Different tasks take different amount of training, so yes months and/or weeks.
That would not happen today. Either would cost your father his job today.
Thank you.
Good time to drop the unions.
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