Workers at nation's largest oil refinery join growing strike

CBS News ^ | 22 February 2015

[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.

[terycarl]

The quicker that unions disappear and people are free to negotiate their own contracts with their employers, the better!!

[eastforker]

After reading some of the replys here, it is evident that only a few even have a clue as to what goes on inside a refinery or chem plant.It would actually be much safer if the work was done by company men than some of the contractors doing the work,there are many contractors that have no business working inside those gates. Been there done that, got the scars to prove it.