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| USW Oil Workers |
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Striking Marathon oil refinery workers and supporters rallied outside the 2015 IHS CERAWeek conference on energy policy and investment in Houston April 21, where Marathon President and CEO Gary Heminger spoke.
The national oil strike that began Feb. 1 continues at Marathon in Texas City, Texas; LyondellBasell in Pasadena, Texas; BP-Husky in Toledo, Ohio; and BP in Whiting, Indiana. “Almost everybody is back to work” at the Marathon refinery in Catlettsburg, Kentucky, Steelworkers Local 8-719 Vice President Dave Martin told the Militant. In a divided vote after no recommendation from the local officers, members approved a contract April 3. “The company held a return-to-work ‘debriefing’ for everyone in two groups,” Martin said. “The plant manager said there’s a new bar for us to perform to, that contractors work safer than we do and that during the strike the company had higher production with less people. Everybody’s mad about the remarks. I believe it jump-started our local. Members are sticking together more now. It’s a different place after the strike. We’ve come out of this a lot stronger.” In addition to the four refineries still on strike, the fight for safe working conditions, cuts in forced overtime, hiring of more workers and further efforts to organize more contract maintenance workers into the Steelworkers continues inside all the union-organized refineries. |
| — MITCHEL ROSENBERG Mitchel Rosenberg is a member of Steelworkers Local 10-1 in Philadelphia. |