Biggest U.S. Oil Workers Strike Since 1980 Enters Second Day

[blake 3:17]

Biggest U.S. Oil Workers Strike Since 1980 Enters Second Day

(Bloomberg) -- The strike by oil workers at plants accounting for 10 percent of U.S. refining capacity entered a second day Monday in the biggest walkout since 1980. Crude futures gained.

The United Steelworkers union that represents employees at more than 200 refineries, terminals, pipelines and chemical plants stopped work Sunday at nine sites after failing to agree on a renewed labor contract. The union rejected five offers made by Royal Dutch Shell Plc on behalf of companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. since talks began Jan. 21.

The USW hasn’t called a strike nationally since 1980, when a stoppage lasted three months. While only one of the nine plants has curbed production amid the stoppage, a full walkout of USW workers would threaten to disrupt as much as 64 percent of U.S. fuel output. Shell and union officials began negotiations amid the biggest collapse in oil prices since 2008.
“If the strike escalates, that would be detrimental to the oil price,” David Lennox, a resource analyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney, said by phone. “It will put high U.S. production out on the market and there is nowhere for it to go.”

U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil added 43 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $48.67 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange as of 7:58 a.m. local time, erasing an earlier decline. It jumped 8.3 percent on Friday, the most since June 2012. Gasoline for March delivery added 3.1 percent to $1.5253 a gallon and the diesel contract for the same month gained 1.3 percent to $1.7222.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-01/oil-workers-in-u-s-begin-first-large-scale-strike-since-1980

[blake 3:17]

Injured and killed'

"I think the health and safety issues and contracting out have been building, especially since the last negotiations three years ago," union spokeswoman Lynne Hancock said.

The union has tried to work with the oil industry on fatigue issues, she said, while adding that members still see companies pushing production over safety. And it hasn't changed in the past two weeks of negotiations because Shell is taking the position that staffing is a management rights issue and not an issue that the union should have a voice in, she added.

Union members believe it is time to take a stand, Hancock said.

"If we don't, our people will continue to get injured and killed on the job," she said.

Hancock said union representatives met at Shell's request at 5:15 p.m.

"We had discussions on the issues," she said. "However, no progress was made. We are still on call and willing to meet."

Shell didn't respond to requests to address the issues underlying the contract negotiations.

The United Steelworkers union has made a point of focusing on the long hours and how they affect health and safety, said Robert Bruno, professor at the School of Labor & Employment Relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. And it's an issue that resonates with members.

"Unions don't forget this stuff," he said, referring to the fatal explosions. They can point to disasters and say, "This is why we got this contract language."

One longtime Houston labor leader speculated that the energy companies sensed weakness in the labor movement and that now is the time to take advantage of it.

Three decades ago, 28 percent of the private sector workforce was represented by labor unions, said Richard Shaw, secretary/treasurer of the Harris County AFL-CIO. Today, it's less than 6 percent.

"You don't have anyone driving up wages in this country like labor unions used to," he said. "That upward push is gone."

Union-represented workers at the nation's oil refineries and chemical plants are among the highest-paid hourly workers, he said.

"The industry is probably thinking the workers will bend and the resolve isn't there," he said. But he said he believed striking employees will hold steady.

Sending a message

The strike could be a way the union is sending a message to its members that it's doing something proactive, said A. Kevin Troutman, an employment lawyer with Fisher & Phillips in Houston. But he questioned the timing.

"It's not a great time for the union to strike," Troutman said, referring to the recent and dramatic fall in oil prices. "Companies don't have the money like they once did and are more likely to dig in their heels."

While workers walked off the job at nine facilities, other union-represented refineries, chemical plants, pipelines and oil terminals are running under "rolling 24-hour" contract extensions, which extend existing contracts a day at a time until negotiators reach an agreement or one side calls off the extension. In addition to the national talks, local unions are negotiating issues at individual sites.

The strike at seven oil refineries and two chemical plants affected the market for gasoline on Monday.

Wholesale distributors appeared to be buying higher volumes of gasoline amid fears that they won't be able to tap into supplies later on, pushing commodity prices higher.

However, refinery operators have said they'll continue to pour out gasoline and other petroleum products using skeleton crews of managers and employees from other parts of the companies. Analysts said they don't expect that the strikes will sway oil and gasoline prices much over the long term, although Monday's rise in prices looked to be an initial spike in response to the work stoppages.

"I think the refinery strikes are definitely having an impact, because the products are the strongest part of the rally," said Phil Flynn, an oil analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago, referring to rising gasoline and oil prices. "Obviously we know the refineries will keep going, but the market is worried about it."

Supervisors' duties

While strikers walked the picket lines, supervisors took over their jobs in operations and maintenance. Some companies have brought in managers from other plants to step in temporarily.

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Labor-talks-resume-but-strikers-hunker-down-6057754.php#/0

[ckaihatsu]

Indiana refinery workers on strike

USW Local 7-1 hits the picket lines against unsafe BP

http://www.fightbacknews.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/article-lead-photo/Danko.jpg

By J Burger

Whiting, IN - At midnight, Feb. 7, 1100 workers at the BP refinery here went on an Unfair Labor Practice strike, citing the company’s poor record at keeping workers safe on the job. Steelworkers Local 7-1 joins the picket lines today as does the local union in Toledo, Ohio, bringing the total to over 5000 nationwide on strike as of today.

Local President Dave Danko said, "Workers are taking a stand on staffing and excessive overtime required by BP." He said the issue of sub-contracting loomed large in negotiations because the oil company is bringing in outside contractors to do routine maintenance when union steelworkers used to do the work.

"With short-staffing and our members working overtime, they cannot be freed up for training. This sets the stage for the company to bring in outside contractors to do our work, jeopardizing safety," Danko said.

All of the local issues with BP will have to be resolved in the national negotiations. The last meeting with the company negotiators was on Feb. 6.

Bystanders on the picket lines spoke of seeing scab workers coming into the plant with license plates from as far as Pennsylvania, Georgia, Minnesota and Virginia.

When pressed for how long the this strike may go, Danko said, "We will be here as long as it takes." Pickets are stationed at 10 gates spread around the massive refinery property and they are staffed 24 hours a day.

Read more News and Views from the Peoples Struggle at http://www.fightbacknews.org. You can write to us at [email protected]

[ckaihatsu]

Oil strike escalates in US

http://www.industriall-union.org/sites/default/files/styles/image_w460/public/uploads/images/2015/USA/usw_local_7-1_oil_workers20150212_0003.jpg?itok=gtdSYntW
USW Local 7-1 Indiana - Oil workers strike at BP Source: USW

Feb 12, 2015

Faced with increased employer intransigence in the US the United Steelworkers (USW) oil industry strike, principally in support of demands for improved safety provisions has escalated as it entered its second week.

Workers at BP refineries in Ohio and Indiana have joined the walkout that began on 1 February at nine other refineries. From California to Kentucky this is the first nationwide strike in the industry for 35 years.

There are now more than 5,000 USW members on an unfair labour practice strike at 11 refineries owned by Shell, Marathon, Tesoro, BP and LyondellBasell. THe strikes began after Shell failed to offer serious proposals to address the USW's concerns about safety, onerous overtime and unsafe staffing levels.

Shell is leading the employer side of negotiations for a new national contract. On 6 February the Houston area oil workers took part in a noon rally at Shell US Headquarters to show management that union members are united in their drive for a fair contract that improves safety throughout the industry. The following day, on 7 February, one week into the strike, refinery workers around the country participated in a National Day of Action for Safe Refineries, Secure Jobs and Healthy Communities. Local USW unions carried out actions in solidarity with striking locals, which included a mix of plant gate rallies and rallies at local union halls.

IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the USW is clear that the main priority of the national strike is refinery safety and resolving the issue of chronic understaffing. USW International Vice President Gary Beevers, who heads the union’s National Oil Bargaining Program, stated that

This work stoppage is about onerous overtime; unsafe staffing levels; dangerous conditions the industry continues to ignore; and flagrant contracting out that impacts health and safety on the job.

In addition to the health and safety issues, the USW unfair labour practice (ULP) strike is over the oil companies’ bad faith bargaining, including the refusal to bargain over mandatory subjects; undue delays in providing information; impeded bargaining; and threats issued to workers if they joined the ULP strike.

The union is committed to negotiating a fair contract that improves safety conditions throughout the industry and USW negotiators are determined to resolve the members’ central issues.

This week has also seen a delegation of striking refinery workers bring their campaign for a safer oil industry to Europe at meetings with allies from trade unions in the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom.

The group includes striking workers from refineries owned by Shell, Marathon and Tesoro. Shell, which has taken the lead on bargaining for the companies, has its headquarters in the Netherlands. The USW members met with leaders from the FNV oil workers union at Shell and LyondellBasell in the Netherlands and then travelled to the United Kingdom to meet with leaders from Unite the Union, the largest industrial union in Great Britain and Ireland.

INFO

IndustriALL Global Union has issued an initial press release and sent a message of support to the workers which you can find at:

http://www.industriall-union.org/usw-oil-workers-stage-nationwide-strike

This is potentially a long and difficult struggle. We stand ready to increase our solidarity actions in support of our US affiliate in their fight for safe workplaces.

You can access the latest information from the union at: www.OilBargaining.org

Audio file at: http://www.usw.org/news/media-center/articles/2015/health-and-safety-must-come-first-in-oil-bargaining

Sign USW petition “Safe Refineries Save Lives”: http://www.usw.org/act/oilsafety

ENERGY (OIL, GAS, ELECTRICITY AND NUCLEAR) HEALTH AND SAFETY USA STRIKE



Related news

›USW oil workers stage nationwide strike

Latest news

12.02
Oil strike escalates in US
12.02
Switzerland: workers fight to save jobs at Tamoil
12.02
Georgia: Mineworkers fight against severe union-busting
12.02
Philippines: Lafarge-Holcim unions consolidate forces
12.02
Russia: IndustriALL affiliate ITUWA celebrates victory against short-term contracts
12.02
Bangladesh: union strength and brand pressure
12.02
Ghana: IndustriALL members locked out at Crown Holdings
11.02
First Quantum Minerals dismiss workers demanding healthcare access
10.02
Organizing white-collar workers
10.02
Maternity protection top issue for Philippine unions
Contact
IndustriALL Global Union
Telephone: + 41 22 308 5050
Telefax: + 41 22 308 5055
E-mail: [email protected]
Geneva, Switzerland
› All contacts
This is IndustriALL
IndustriALL Global Union represents workers across supply chains in mining, energy and manufacturing sectors at the global level.
› Read more
Building power
The Statutes, Action Plan and political leadership of IndustriALL Global Union were decided at its founding Congress in Copenhagen from 18 to 20 June 2012.
› Congress site
Archive - founding organizations
› IMF
› ITGLWF
› ICEM
©2015 – industriALL

[ckaihatsu]

[email protected] strike; also Joe Burns on "Reviving the Strike" - next Labor Beat on CAN TV 19, starts 4/9

Two-segment show




Refinery Strikers Protest at Chicago BP Headquarters

Chicago - CAN TV Channel 19
Thursday, April 9, 9:30 pm
Friday, April 10, 4:30 pm
Thursday, April 16, 9:30 pm
Friday, April 17, 4:30 pm

On April 6, the strike against the BP oil refinery in Whiting, Indiana entered its 2nd month. Three weeks ago (3/19/15), Labor Beat covered the strikers' protest rally in front of the multi-billion dollar corporation's Chicago headquarters in the Mercantile Exchange building. It was organized by USW Local 7-1, which includes about 1,100 members. They were joined by members from the Chicago Teachers Union.

Although the USW had settled a national contract with BP during this current strike, the contract for Local 7-1 still had not been finalized. Bob Lofton, USW International Field Rep., explained that the Whiting refinery workers have been on strike since Feb. 8. "There's two levels of bargaining, one at the national, one at the local. The national package settlement was reached, and that included the terms of the agreement and wages. That has yet to be put on the table at the various locations that will still go forward, but local issues in Whiting prevent us from getting an agreement even though the national package has been tentatively reached and settled at other locations."

Ebony Parker, USW 7-1 member from the Whiting refinery, pointed out that "it's not about the money. It's about safety. We're not working safely and we're tired and we can't get the proper rest. Six hours between a shift is not sufficient enough rest. People need to understand we're not making Legos. We're dealing with some of the most dangerous chemicals, the most flammable chemicals that you can even deal with...The danger in it is it affects not just the communities that the refinery sits in -- in Hammond, Whiting and Chicago -- but it affects the people that travel through."

Also interviewed on the picket line in Whiting is USW 7-1 member Ralph Ford. Also can be viewed at:

uGZCZ8XV_xo

http://s3.postimg.org/6cr3alecz/150319_Strikers_from_Whiting_Indiana_Labor_Beat.jp g
Strikers from Whiting, Indiana refinery protest at BP HQ in Chicago.
Photo: Labor Beat

Second Segment:
Could Reviving the Strike Revive the Labor Movement?

Joe Burns, author of Strike Back, was the guest speaker of the Chicago Labor Speakers Club on March 21, 2015. His topic was "Could Reviving the Strike Revive the Labor Movement?"

Burns provides useful historical perspective for workers looking to reverse the downward trend in union membership in the last several decades.

He reminds us of what the essence of trade unionism is -- the strike. "Anyone who's sat at the bargaining table really knows that they don't care about your arguments or your words, and at the end of the day it's about power. And our power is based upon our ability to stop production of the employer and cause economic harm to the employer."

Beginning with the strike upsurges in the 1930s and the rapid evolution of labor legislation in the 1930s-40s -- from the Wagner Act, Taft-Hartley legislation, creation of the NLRB -- Burns talks about how legislation which originally was used by unions as a form of protection was transformed through employer-controlled governments to thwart unions. "What basically you have over the years is an increasingly tightening noose around the labor movement."

Burns then goes to the heart of the matter: "So when we ask ourselves why do we have a weak and ineffectual trade union movement today...we have to look at the fact that the rules of the game are rigged."

The history of public sector unions since the 1960s shows a way forward. They simply defied laws prohibiting them from striking and, through mass membership and public support mobilizations, created the critical mass to control the political climate, leading to changed legislation.

Burns makes an important distinction between public sector and private sector strikes. When public employees strike, management doesn't experience financial stress. They still collect money (taxes). Therefore, public employee unions find additional ways (such as what is now called social unionism) to overwhelm management and anti-labor governments. But when private industry strikes happen, the name of the game is to put the employer under financial duress (stop production). For private sector strikes, public support in and of itself will not win the strike. "An example would be the Jefferson, WI strike against Tyson in 2004...They had great community support...or the Detroit newspaper strike...but we weren't able to translate that support into economically harming the employer."

Summing up his historical overview, Burns suggests how the labor movement can regain power. And that is by a return to the basics of unionism: strikes and strike upsurges -- including general strikes, though such are not predictable, nor can they be easily brought about by decree.

The political aspects -- whether such a new strike upsurge today can lead to similar or greater political/legislative transformations as in the 30s -- was not specifically addressed.
Speech is edited for time fit. Enhanced with archival footage and photos. Can also be viewed at:

fnOYPV7AABc

http://s16.postimg.org/5l636wi8l/150330_Joe_Burns_Labor_Beat.jpg
Joe Burns, author of Strike Back. Photo: Labor Beat

Produced by Labor Beat. Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner. Labor Beat is a non-profit 501(c)(3) member of IBEW 1220. Views are those of the producer Labor Beat. For info: [email protected], www.laborbeat.org. 312-226-3330. For other Labor Beat videos, visit YouTube and search "Labor Beat".

Labor Beat's facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/LABOR-BEAT/167503422257

To order this dvd from Labor Beat (Committee for Labor Access):

BUY DVD - CLICK HERE (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=9872013)

(Put title of DVD, "Refinery Strikers/BP + Joe Burns" in Description box. Put $15 in Unit Price box. $20 for Canada, and $25 for other countries outside the U.S. NTSC format only.)

[ckaihatsu]

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/03/17/pers-m17.html


World Socialist Web Site wsws.org

The oil workers’ strike and the return of the class struggle in the US

17 March 2015

The month-and-a-half strike by oil workers in the United States has demonstrated once again that the essential driving force of social and political development in the US, like the rest of the world, is the class struggle.

Despite musings about the “disappearance of the working class” and the obsessive fixation with race and gender in upper-middle class academic circles, capitalist society, in the famous words of Karl Marx, is split “into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other—Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.”

The struggle has pitted 30,000 oil workers against some of the richest and most politically connected corporations in the world: the energy conglomerates, which buy and sell governments, order the launching of wars and military coups, and pollute the planet with impunity.

Driven solely by profit considerations, Shell, ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron and the other companies neglect infrastructure repairs, refuse to hire full-time workers and exploit the present workforce to the point of exhaustion, indifferent to the resulting explosions, fires and environmental damage.

Tens of millions of workers in the US and around the world—who have suffered eroding living standards even as corporate profits and stock prices have hit record highs—support the fight of the oil workers. Once again, however, the greatest obstacle to the unification of the working class has proven to be the pro-capitalist and nationalist trade unions, which have sought to sabotage the strike and are now working to impose the dictates of corporate management and the Obama administration.

From the beginning, the United Steelworkers union (USW) sought deliberately to ensure the strike’s defeat. The USW limited the strike to a small fraction of the workers it represents in the industry, although USW workers have the power to shut down two-thirds of the refinery capacity in the US. It isolated striking workers even as Shell executives announced that they would replace them with “relief workers.” The union joined the effort to starve workers into submission by withholding any significant aid from its $350 million strike fund.

Finally, last week, the USW agreed to a supposed “contract” that is an insult to the workers who have manned picket lines, in some cases in the freezing cold, for more than six weeks. Worthless promises from management to provide the union with “opportunities for discussion” on fatigue issues and contracting out work were palmed off by USW President Leo Gerard as “vast improvements in safety and staffing.” By demobilizing most of the unionized workers, the USW has left workers continuing the strike at BP, Tesoro and Marathon to fight alone.

Once again, workers have been confronted with the brick wall known as the American “labor movement.” As in so many struggles over the last five years—the Indianapolis GM workers, Wisconsin public sector workers, Verizon workers, Chicago teachers, Illinois Caterpillar workers, Findlay, Ohio Cooper Tire workers, New York City school bus drivers, West Coast dockworkers, to name a few—the impasse confronting the oil strike is not due to any lack of determination on the part of the workers. In every case, the enormous potential revealed in these struggles was systematically undermined and smothered by the AFL-CIO and other unions.

The great impulse for the mass industrial organization of the American working class was the victory of the Russian Revolution, which provided an immense impetus to the class struggle internationally. In the 1930s, the US saw insurrectionary class battles that led to the formation of the industrial unions. Under conditions of revolutionary upheaval, the ruling class responded by implementing certain social reforms—an effort to “save capitalism from itself.”

The newly formed Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), however, remained subordinate to the Democratic Party. The alliance with this capitalist party meant the abandonment of any fight for a fundamental change in social relations, and the new unions quickly made their peace with American capitalism. This was cemented by the postwar anticommunist purge of the socialist pioneers who had built the industrial unions. The merger of the AFL and the CIO in 1955 marked the repudiation of any radical social struggle.

The period of social reform—which Walter Reuther and other union leaders claimed would last forever—proved to be short-lived. By the late 1970s, facing the loss of its economic hegemony, the US corporate and financial elite shifted its policy from class compromise to class war. President Reagan’s firing of the PATCO air traffic controllers in 1981 initiated a period of social counterrevolution, pursued by both big-business parties, which continues to this day.

The anti-working class alliance between the unions and the Democratic Party has been on display in the oil workers’ strike. From the beginning, the USW was determined to prevent the struggle from escalating into a political confrontation with the Obama administration, with which the USW has the closest relations. USW President Leo Gerard sits on Obama’s Advanced Manufacturing Partnership committee, where he conspires with the CEOs from Alcoa, Caterpillar and other Fortune 500 companies to lower wages and pension and health care costs in order to “in-source” production from China, Mexico and other low-wage countries.

The role of the unions is a product not simply of the corruption of individual leaders, though of this there is plenty. The transformation of the trade unions into direct tools of the corporations and the government is the product of a decades-long degeneration, rooted in powerful objective changes in the structure of the world economy. These transformations have rendered the nationally based and pro-capitalist trade unions obsolete and in fact reactionary.

The global integration of capitalist production was the final nail in the coffin for the nationally based trade unions in the US and around the world. In every country, the unions have abandoned any defense of workers’ interests and overseen the relentless destruction of wages, benefits and working conditions.

The oil workers’ strike is a harbinger for the reemergence of open class conflict in America after decades in which the trade unions suppressed it. There is growing determination among tens of millions of workers to reverse years of declining living standards.

To unleash the social power of the working class, it is necessary first of all to throw off the dead weight of the pro-company trade unions. New organizations, led by the most self-sacrificing and militant workers and democratically controlled by the workers themselves, must be built to spearhead a counteroffensive by the working class. This must involve far wider sections of workers, including the vast majority who are not in unions and the tens of millions of immigrant and unemployed workers.

At the same time, there must be an understanding that workers face not a trade union struggle, but a political struggle against an economic and political system—capitalism—that operates on a world scale. The fight to defend the social rights of working people—to decent-paying and safe jobs, economic security, health care, education and a future for the next generation—pits workers directly against the two parties of big business and the bankrupt profit system they defend.

Nowhere does the necessity for socialism and economic planning reveal itself more clearly than in the global energy industry. If social needs, including the health and well-being of oil workers, are to take precedence over the single-minded drive for profit, the industry must be nationalized under the democratic control of working people, as part of a socialist planned economy in the US and internationally.

Jerry White
Copyright © 1998-2015 World Socialist Web Site - All rights reserved