USW Reaches Tentative Deal with Oil Industry
The United Steelworkers (USW) and the oil industry have reached a tentative three-year agreement covering 30,000 USW members at 168 production, refining, marketing, transportation, pipeline and petrochemical facilities nationwide, the union announced last night. The deal is subject to ratification by the membership.
Talks between the USW and Shell—which represented the industry—began Jan. 14,and most the current contracts expired at midnight.
While details of the tentative contract have not been released, news reports say that improvements in safe and health provisions—a major concern for the USW—are included. Between 2009 and 2011, 18 workers died while working at U.S. refineries.
USW: Oil Safety Issues Must be Negotiated
The United Steelworkers (USW) wants to sit down with the oil industry to discuss health and safety issues.
The public’s awareness of the lack of oil industry safety has been heightened by the tragic BP/Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 workers, set off the largest oil spill in Gulf history and put thousands of people out of work. But the reality is that safety has been an ongoing problem.
During April and May, there were 13 fires, 19 deaths and 25 injuries in the oil industry, USW says. This year, refineries have averaged one fire per week. These figures reflect only reported incidents. There could be more because refineries have no legal obligation to report every incident.
USW Vice President Gary Beevers, who heads the union’s oil sector, said in a statement:.
I’ve asked the industry to sit down and have an honest discussion about handling safety effectively. Let’s conduct a thorough analysis, then negotiate a signed agreement that addresses the alarming deterioration in safety throughout the oil industry.
The same loose attitude toward risk and willingness to put cost ahead of safety that led to the Deepwater Horizon disaster exist throughout the oil industry. It’s not just offshore drilling and it’s not just BP.
Steelworkers Reach Tentative Contract with Shell
The United Steelworkers (USW) reached a tentative agreement yesterday with Royal Dutch Shell PLC—the lead company for the oil industry—on wages, benefits and working conditions that will become the minimum standards when local union negotiations get under way.
While agreement on the economic terms was reached, USW President Leo W. Gerard said safety issues remain.
These were tough negotiations, given the economic conditions of an economy still in a total free fall. The oil companies were not willing to work with us fully to improve process safety.
