Shell: Refiners, union reach national contract agreement
Some 5,000 refinery and pipeline workers in the Houston area will soon be asked to ratify a contract agreement reached by their national union and a consortium of refiners, led by Royal Dutch Shell.
Shell said late Thursday that it reached a tentative deal with the United Steelworkers, which represents 30,000 refinery workers nationwide, just hours before a 12:01 a.m. Friday deadline. Shell represents several energy companies, including Exxon Mobil, Shell, PBF
Energy, Valero, Phillips 66, Chevron, Chevron Phillips Chemical, LyondellBasell and Marathon Petroleum; the national agreement will set the pattern for local labor contracts on wages, benefits, seniority and other working conditions.
The deal must be approved by union locals and individual companies and refineries. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“While some local issues are still being addressed at various sites around the country, national contract issues have been resolved,” Ray Fisher, Shell spokesman, said in a statement. “We believe this agreement respects the needs of our employees, underpins our resolute commitment to safety and ensures the economic health of Shell’s facilities.”
The deal would boost union salaries by 11 percent over the three-year contract, according to media reports. The union reportedly had asked for 8 percent annual raise for workers who make an average of $40 an hour with four years experience. The union also proposed its members begin replacing as much much as 10 percent a year of nonunion workers who perform maintenance work at refineries and chemical plants, according to media reports.
“We reached a tentative agreement because of our members’ solidarity and the industry’s willingness to negotiate a contract that is fair to both parties,” USW International President Leo W. Gerard said in an announcement Thursday night.
A Houston union representative said several of the local refineries were still working to hammer out their own localized version of the national contract. It’s not clear yet when all the Houston-area refineries will finalize their own local labor contracts.
In the last round of contract talks in 2015, disputes over local issues kept workers off the job in several locations even after a major strike and a national agreement was reached. It took three months for LyondellBasell workers to approve a contract and return to work.
Thousands of refinery workers went on a national strike in 2015. The stoppage included some 6,500 workers at 15 facilities and 12 refineries nationwide, including Lyondell-Basell’s in Pasadena, Shell Deer Park Refinery in Deer Park, Shell Deer Park Chemical Plant, Marathon’s Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City and Marathon’s Cogeneration and Motiva.