United States oil workers’ strike for safety extended

This video from the USA says about itself:

1 May 2007 — Eva Rowe, daughter of two workers killed in the BP Texas City disaster, testified about the disaster and worker safety before the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee on March 22, 2007.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

USW safety strikers joined by two oil refineries

Sunday 8th February 2015

United Steelworkers (USW) extended its oil workers’ strike to two more refineries yesterday, saying that oil companies refused to negotiate honestly on health and safety.

Walkouts at the BP plant in Whiting, Indiana, and its joint-venture refinery with Husky Energy in Toledo, Ohio, just after midnight brought the number of plants with striking hourly workers to 11.

They collectively account for 13 per cent of US refining capacity.

USW said that refinery owners led by Royal Dutch Shell had failed to discuss health and safety issues and engaged in “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 strike.”

USW international president Leo Gerard said: “Management cannot continue to resist allowing workers a stronger voice on issues that could very well make the difference between life and death for too many of them.”

Yesterday marked the eighth day of the strike, which USW called on January 31 after accusing Shell of walking away from the negotiating table.

About 4,000 workers at refineries in California, Kentucky, Texas and Washington initially left their jobs when the strike began shortly after midnight on February 1.

Another 1,440 workers joined the picket lines when employees of the BP-operated refineries in Indiana and Ohio walked out yesterday morning.

Oil companies are continuing to operate all but one of the plants with scab labour.

Tesoro Corp elected to shut down production at its Martinez, California, refinery because half the plant’s production had already stopped due to a planned overhaul.

USW began talks with Shell on January 21, initially seeking wage rises, tighter policy to prevent worker fatigue and reductions in non-union contractors working in refineries.

Since the start of the strike, the union has stressed the safety and health aspects of its proposals to prevent accidents in refineries.

The week-long strike by US oil refinery workers has revealed widespread social anger over the continued erosion of living standards and working conditions over nearly six years of a supposed economic recovery. On Sunday morning, 1,400 workers at refineries in Indiana and Ohio joined the walkout of 3,800 workers on strike since February 1 in California, Texas, Kentucky, and Washington state: here.

Striking US oil refinery workers speak out: here.

CONRAD LANDIN talks to US oil workers who are taking a stand over being forced to work potentially deadly long hours: here.