Vol. 79/No. 22      June 15, 2015

Militant/Bernie Senter

Striking Steelworkers in Texas City rejected Marathon’s latest proposal that includes attacks on safety. Above, March 23 commemoration of 2005 fatal explosion at refinery there.

The 1,100 Texas City oil workers were part of a nationwide strike at 15 refineries and chemical plants that started in February. Strikers fought for safety on the job, less forced overtime and the end of contracting out daily maintenance. A national agreement was reached March 12. Union members returned to work after settling local issues at all but two refineries, Marathon’s refinery in Texas City and BP in Toledo, Ohio.

Members of United Steelworkers Local 7-1 at the large BP refinery in Whiting, Indiana, ratified a contract May 11 and returned to work.

“We held the line,” Ebony Parker told the Militant by phone June 1. The agreement “addressed all of the items, including bargaining rights,” Parker said. “We did not give up our bargaining rights, and backed off BP on this. A lot of folks thought we wouldn’t make it, but we did.

“A lot of us had never experienced a strike,” she said. “This taught us a lot and we gained strength. The USW retirees encouraged us and helped us a lot. We fought one of the biggest industries in the country and had a very small percentage that crossed our line.”

“The company acted during the strike like a bully in the playground and expected more union members to cross the line. But only 13 out of 1,100 did,” Steven Kallies, a maintenance worker at BP in Whiting, said in a phone interview. Scabs will be dismissed when their contract expires June 7, Kallies said.

In Texas City, Marathon is “trying to gut the benefits we bargained for,” Aaron Maldonado, an operator at the plant, told the Houston Chronicle. He noted that the pager requirement would make it impossible to take his family on even a short trip.

Throughout the strike workers have pointed to the massive overtime and punishing schedules as a threat to safety of workers and the communities. A 2005 explosion at the Texas City refinery, then owned by BP, killed 15 workers.

Reuters reported that after announcing the results to more than 100 cheering union members, Steelworkers Local 13-1 Vice President Larry Burchfield said, “There are too many takeaways at one time. That has really solidified the membership.” Picketing continues and community support is strong. The union hall is stocked with donated food.

Workers at the Marathon refinery in Catlettsburg, Kentucky, who returned to work in April, are building support for their union brothers and sisters still on strike against Marathon in Texas.

“We go from control room to control room throughout the refinery” collecting funds to send to striking Local 13-1, Tim Thirion, an operator in Catlettsburg, told the Militant June 1.

Under the new contract at the Catlettsburg refinery, workers went from eight- to 12-hour shifts. “We were the last to give up the eight-hour day,” Thirion said. “There’s a reason our forefathers fought for shorter hours. When I get home now, I just hit the couch and get ready to go back to work the next day.”

The 350 striking workers at the BP-Husky refinery, members of Steelworkers Local 1-346, took down picket lines May 27 and sent BP an unconditional offer to return to work. This put the ball in the company’s court to make a contract offer. “If they do not, it’s considered a lockout,” Local President Chad Culbertson told WTOL TV in Toledo, “and at that point the members would be able to collect unemployment.”

BP-Husky made an offer May 30, which union officials said would be voted on within a week.

Alyson Kennedy and Dan Fein in Chicago and Mitchel Rosenberg, a member of USW Local 10-1 in Philadelphia, contributed to this article.
 
 
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On the Picket Line  
 
 
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