MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil will begin hiring additional temporary operators of its Beaumont, Texas refinery as a lockout of 650 union-represented workers runs into its 11th week, reported Reuters.
Exxon said it took the decision to hire the new workers after four meetings with the United Steelworkers (USW) union local 13-243 failed to yield the results the company expected.
"It is also worth clarifying that our USW represented employees remain employed by the company while locked-out and we look forward to welcoming them back when there is a ratified contract," Exxon said in a statement posted to its website.
Hoot Landry, USW International staff representative, said Exxon's hiring another group of temporary workers was meant to frighten the locked-out employees.
Exxon said in its statement the refinery is being run by superviors while the temporary workers, called contractor operators, "will help us to maintain headcount."
As MRC reported earlier, Exxon locked out the union-represented workers at the 369,024 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery and adjoining lubricant oil plant on May 1 to avoid a strike as a 75-day labor peace period came to an end following the expiration of the contract.
The USW has said the company's last proposal, made in April, requires its members to give up long-standing seniority and would create a separate contract for workers in the lube oil plant from that for workers in the refinery. Exxon has said the proposal would give it flexibility to be profitable in low-margin environments.
We also remind that ExxonMobil's Beaumont, Texas refinery is operating at about 60% of its 369,024-bpd capacity because of the lockout of union workers.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 953,400 tonnes in the first five months of 2021, which virtually corresponded to the same figure a year earlier. High denisty polyethylene (HDPE) shipments decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 607,8900 tonnes in January-May 2021, up by 33% year on year. Shipments of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas deliveries of PP random copolymers decreased.
ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC