United Steelworkers is calling for the 1,085 members working at BP Whiting Refinery, along with union members at a BP refinery in Toledo, Ohio, to go on strike at 12:01 a.m. Sunday, increasing the number of refineries where workers have walked off the job to 11.
Union spokeswoman Lynne Hancock said the national bargaining team called for the strike Friday evening, after the union rejected Shell Oil Co.'s sixth contract offer Wednesday night.
Hancock said rallies were planned at all the refineries and at the Shell Oil headquarters in Houston, Texas, on Saturday. She believed the rallies would still take place.
Negotiations are taking place both at the national level and locally, between USW Local 7-1 and BP.
Union members walked out of nine refineries in four states at 12:01 a.m. Sunday after talks between the two parties broke down, while union workers at the remaining oil refineries, including BP Whiting Refinery, began working on a 24-hour rollover basis.
The former three-year contract expired Sunday.
A top-ranking union official said this could be one of the toughest negotiations in years, due to falling oil prices and other factors affecting the industry.
At the national level, the United Steelworkers and Shell Oil Co. are discussing general items affecting all the locals, such as wages, benefits and working conditions. Local negotiations, which began in December, concern issues such as job bidding, local health and safety issues, work hours, grievance and arbitration proceedings, and vacancy filling.