FIRST NATIONWIDE OIL WORKER STRIKE IN DECADES GROWS EVEN BIGGER.
“FLAGRANT CONTRACTING” BY THE OIL COMPANIES IS HAVING A NEGATIVE IMPACT ON HEALTH AND SAFETY.
THE MOST COMMON CAUSES FOR OIL AND GAS ACCIDENTS INCLUDE FAILURE TO PROVIDE PROPER TRAINING TO NEW EMPLOYEES AND FAILURE TO PROPERLY IMPLEMENT AND UPDATE SAFETY PROCEDURES.
February
8, 2015
On
Sunday, workers at two BP oil refineries in Ohio and Indiana walked out as part
of a nationwide oil worker strike being led by the United Steelworkers Union
(USW). Citing unfair labor practices and dangerous conditions, including leaks
and explosions, the approximately 1,440 workers will join nearly 4,000 that began
striking a week ago on February 1.
The
first nationwide strike by oil refinery workers since 1980, the addition of BP’s
Whiting, Indiana, refinery and the company’s joint-venture refinery with Husky
Energy in Toledo, Ohio, brings the total number of plants with strikers to 11,
including refineries accounting for about 13 percent of total U.S. oil refining
capacity. The original strike included workers in California, Kentucky, Texas
and Washington.
The
USW called for the strike after talks broke down with Shell Oil, which is
leading the industry-wide bargaining effort. It comes at an already tumultuous
time as plummeting oil prices have given rise to a heated debate over the
future of an industry that relies on extracting cheap and plentiful resources
from the ground. This precipitous drop in crude oil prices by over 60 percent
since June has caused companies to lay off workers and delay plans for
expansion; what they see as the most painless means of avoiding profit cuts.
The strike is not expected to impact gas prices.
In
a statement, USW International President Leo W. Gerard said the oil industry is
long overdue in addressing many of the issues that directly impact workers’
health and safety.
“Management
cannot continue to resist allowing workers a stronger voice on issues that
could very well make the difference between life and death for too many of
them,” said Gerard.
USW
represents about 30,000 workers at more than 200 refineries, terminals, and
pipelines across the country. A full USW strike could disrupt as much as 64
percent of U.S. fuel output, according to Bloomberg. Right now the USW is
negotiating for a new national contract at 63 plants.
While
Shell spokesman Ray Fisher said the companies “remain committed to resolving
the remaining issues through collective bargaining at the bargaining table,”
temporary replacement workers have been hired to continue operating all but one
of the plants.
According
to USW International Vice President Gary Beevers, who heads the union’s
National Oil Bargaining Program (NOBP), Shell has also failed to accept
“no-retrogression” language in the contracts requiring the acceptance of
previous industry agreements.
“We
will not relinquish 50 years of progress in NOBP bargaining,” said Beevers.
Beevers
cited “flagrant contracting” as having a negative impact on health and safety.
The most common causes for oil and gas accidents include failure to provide
proper training to new employees and failure to properly implement and update
safety procedures.
In
January there were at least four major mishaps at a U.S. pipelines that
resulted in costly explosions or spills. In 2013, Texas led the country in oil
and gas sector fatalities with 106. Overall, oil and gas workers are six times
more likely to die on the job than average Americans. With the recent growth of
the industry due to the proliferation of new drilling techniques such as
fracking, safety measures can suffer. In North Dakota, which has been at the
forefront of the oil boom, the fatality rate for industry workers was three
times the national average in 2013.
On
Friday, the local Toledo union posted on its Facebook page that the “strike is
NOT about money, this is about addressing safety issues that have been ignored
for way too long … 138 workers were killed on the job while extracting,
producing, or supporting oil and gas in 2012 … the number was more than double that
of 2009.”