United Steelworkers and Shell, charged by the industry with bargaining with the union for a three-year labor contract, will resume negotiations today. As The Advertiser reports, the union is striking at 15 locations in seven states, including Motiva refineries in Convent and Norco and the Shell Chemicals plant in Norco.
The Louisiana actions involve about 800 workers and a refinery capacity of 465,000 barrels of oil per day.
“Hopefully, there can be some traction,” says USW spokesman Wayne Ranick in Pittsburgh. “The goal is to get a contract that works for both sides.”
The strike began Feb. 1 at nine locations and involves almost 7,000 workers nationally. Six refineries in Texas are also affected, including the largest refinery in the United States at Port Arthur, just across the Cameron Parish line. Union spokeswoman Lynne Hancock says there was no word where the resumed talks would be held, “only that they are meeting.”
In a letter to USW workers, union officials led by International President Leo W. Gerard say the paramount issue is safety. Specifically, the union says it wants to ensure “safe staffing levels,” contending that union members are often becoming fatigued by working long hours of overtime because the oil companies are not replacing people who are sick, on vacation or temporarily reassigned.
In a letter issued Tuesday, Aamir Farid, Shell’s vice president of manufacturing-Americas, says the company was moving from a contingency plan at some plants, including Norco, to a “business continuity” plan that involves using additional newly trained Shell employees.
In Louisiana, more than 11,000 workers are employed in refineries. In a 2013 study done for the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association, economist Loren Scott says nearly $6 billion in earnings and 100,000 jobs could be linked through direct and indirect effects of the refining industry in Louisiana in 2011.
