UAW: 30,000 OIL WORKERS ON STRIKE IN
HOUSTON AND ACROSS U.S. ABOUT “UNSAFE STAFFING LEVELS; DANGEROUS CONDITIONS THE
INDUSTRY CONTINUES TO IGNORE; THE DAILY OCCURRENCES OF FIRES, EMISSIONS, LEAKS
AND EXPLOSIONS THAT THREATEN LOCAL COMMUNITIES WITHOUT THE INDUSTRY DOING MUCH
ABOUT IT”.
Sunday,
February 01, 2015
HOUSTON,
TEXAS (KTRK)
Oil
workers from coast to coast are on strike. They started to walk off the job
around midnight when their union failed to reach a deal with the energy
industry. It's not clear how many workers are on strike.
The contract in dispute covers about 30,000 workers at refineries, pipelines,
oil terminals, and petrochemical plants across the country, including about
5,000 workers here in Houston. A representative for the United Steelworkers
Association, which is the union for the workers, say there are work stoppage at
these facilities in the Houston area: LyondellBasell in Houston, TX; Marathon
Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, TX; Marathon Houston Green Cogeneration
facility, Texas City, TX; Shell Deer Park Refinery, Deer Park, TX; and Shell
Deer Park Chemical Plant, Deer Park, TX.
At the LyondellBasell plant in southeast Houston, workers started to protest
around 6am. Last night, more than a dozen workers walked off the job shortly
after midnight.
"It's about health, safety. It's about issues that confront our workers
every day," said Director of the United Steelworkers, Ruben Garza.
Garza explains why the national union called a strike at midnight at specific
refineries, many of them in here in Southeast Texas.
"We have a lot of health and safety issues we have overtime issues,
fatigue standards that the companies manipulate," he said.
Shell is representing the energy industry in labor talks with the United
Steelworkers Association. Shell hasn't commented on what caused talks to break
down. The USW sent a message to its members calling the latest offer from oil
companies "insulting."
USW
released this statement this afternoon:
"Shell and USW have agreed to extend the existing labor contract for at
least the next 24 hours while negotiations continue to reach a mutually
satisfactory agreement. However, Shell has learned that the USW has given
notice to its members at the Shell Deer Park site to begin a strike at 12:01 on
February 1, 2015. That site has activated its strike contingency plan to
continue operations in the normal course of business. Remaining Shell and
Motiva sites involved in the contract negotiations (Norco, Convent and
Martinez) have received rolling 24 hour extension agreements. We remain
committed to resolving our differences with USW at the negotiating table to reach
a mutually satisfactory agreement."
In an earlier statement, USA International President Leo W. Gerard said,
"Shell refused to provide us with a counter-offer and left the bargaining
table. We had no choice but to give notice of a work stoppage."
USW International Vice President Gary Beevers, who heads the union's National
Oil Bargaining Program, said in the same statement, "This work stoppage is
about onerous overtime; unsafe staffing levels; dangerous conditions the
industry continues to ignore; the daily occurrences of fires, emissions, leaks
and explosions that threaten local communities without the industry doing much
about it; the industry's refusal to make opportunities for workers in the trade
crafts; the flagrant contracting out that impacts health and safety on the job;
and the erosion of our workplace, where qualified and experienced union workers
are replaced by contractors when they leave or retire."
