WHITING | After six weeks, the United Steelworkers union and the oil industry have come to a temporary agreement that should put an end to the nation's largest refinery strike since 1980.
The local strike in Whiting remains ongoing, for the time being. USW Local 7-1 and BP still must reach consensus over local issues, including safety, staffing levels and bargaining rights.
The two sides won't have as much to go back-and-forth on. Pittsburgh-based USW and Shell, which represented all the oil companies in the national talks, have reached a "pattern" agreement that's used as a template for the rest of the industry. The union says it accomplished all of its major goals in bargaining, including addressing unsafe working conditions and low staffing levels that have resulted in excessive overtime.
"We salute the solidarity exhibited by our membership," USW International President Leo W. Gerard said. "There was no way we would have won vast improvements in safety and staffing without it."
BP and USW Local 7-1 will resume talks Friday, spokesman Scott Dean said. BP already has reached agreements with union locals in Alaska and Texas, but is still negotiating at its refineries in Toledo and Whiting, where nearly 1,100 workers walked off the job Feb. 8 and have since been picketing by burn barrels in sometimes brutal subzero cold.
Nationally, the tentative agreement calls for assessments of staffing, workloads, and daily maintenance and repair work. The USW would be involved in all reviews, but will not go into detail as to how the process will work and whether it could compel refineries to hire more workers until after its members have a chance to vote on the agreement.
"The new agreement calls for joint review on the local level of future, craft worker staffing-needs," USW International Vice President Tom Conway said. "Included are hiring plans to be developed in conjunction with recruitment and training programs."
USW officials said the agreement maintains the current health care plan cost-sharing ratio, as well as yearly wage increases. Shell said earlier in the negotiations it had proposed wage hikes of 2 percent this year, 2 percent next year and 2.5 percent in 2017.
BP officials said its Whiting Refinery employees make an average of $82,000 a year, but union members say they have to work a significant amount of overtime to take home anywhere near that much pay.
The proposed contract would preserve pay, benefits and workplace safety agreements from previous contracts, according to the union.
"Preserving 'retrogression' clauses in our agreements was also an objective established by our policy conference and we accomplished that, too," USW International Vice President Gary Beevers said. "There was no way we could turn our backs to the accomplishments of prior contract negotiations."
The terms Shell agreed to are expected to be put forward on local bargaining tables across the country. Union locals still have to approve new three-year contracts at each refinery, including the former Standard Oil refinery that stretches across Hammond, Whiting and East Chicago.
The strike in Whiting, which began Feb. 8 and carried on day and night through the coldest February since 1875, won't end until after a local pact is forged, USW spokeswoman Lynne Hancock said.
A national agreement often provides the motivation needed to quickly resolve negotiations, but in some cases bargaining has stretched on for an additional six months because of irreconcilable differences, she said.
Locally, BP has made a little progress on allowing USW Local 7-1 to keep its bargaining rights, but that remains a sticking point in the negotiations, USW District 7 Director Mike Millsap said.