MOSCOW (MRC) -- About 100 United Steelworkers union (USW) members rallied on Wednesday outside a LyondellBasell Industries Houston oil refinery to protest the lack of negotiations there on a new local contract, reported Reuters.
Talks on a national oil-workers agreement are due to begin next month with Shell Oil Co, the U.S. unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, as the lead industry negotiator. Existing union contracts expire on Feb. 1.
Local groups are beginning discussions, however, on individual plant issues ahead of the national talks. At least four other plants also have begun exchanging proposals on local issues, according to the USW.
LyondellBasell officials did not begin talks on union local issues as planned on Monday, Marcos Velez, a USW International representative, said in an interview on Wednesday. The existing contract covering the plant’s 485 union workers expires on Feb. 1.
"They called and said they couldn’t make it (Monday) and would call about meeting Tuesday," Velez said. "It’s Wednesday and we’re still waiting to meet."
“LyondellBasell and United Steelworkers Local 13-227 are in the process of entering good faith negotiations with the shared interest of reaching an agreement that is fair and equitable for the company and our represented employees,” said company spokeswoman Chevalier Gray.
The USW group carried signs that read: “Coming soon” and showed silhouettes of people picketing. Union-represented Lyondell workers were off their jobs for 3-1/2 months during a strike and contract talks in 2015.
The national agreement, which covers wages, job security, health and safety issues, will be combined with terms of the agreement on local issues at each plant to complete the contract for each location.
Velez said Lyondell also canceled meetings during the 2015 strike.
"It’s not uncommon, but it’s unacceptable," he said.
During the rally, USW activist Joshua Lege used a bullhorn to speak to the workers, many of them wearing blue work coveralls as they lined up in front of the refinery.
"They say they want peace and professionalism, but they want war," Lege said.
The national contract covers about 30,000 refinery and chemical plant workers. In September, union officials agreed to seek 8 percent annual wage increases and a three-year contract in the coming negotiations.
The contract would cover plants operated by Shell, Marathon Petroleum Corp BP Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp, Valero Energy Corp, and smaller refiners such as HollyFrontier Corp and Delek US Holdings Inc.
As MRC wrote previously, in August 2016, LyondellBasell made the final investment decision to build a high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant on the US Gulf Coast. The plant will have an annual capacity of 1.1 billion pounds (500,000 metric tons) and will be the first commercial plant to employ LyondellBasell's new proprietary Hyperzone PE technology. The start-up of the new plant is scheduled for 2019.
LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its 13,000 employees around the globe, LyondellBasell produces materials and products that are key to advancing solutions to modern challenges like enhancing food safety through lightweight and flexible packaging, protecting the purity of water supplies through stronger and more versatile pipes, and improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road. LyondellBasell sells products into approximately 100 countries and is the world's largest licensor of polyolefin technologies.
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