Oil Bargaining History and Achievements

We are stronger when we stand together in solidarity.

Under the National Oil Bargaining Program, USW Oil Workers across the country join in solidarity to build our bargaining power. Working together is how we level the playing field and take on Big Oil.

For six decades, USW Oil workers have stood united and demonstrated our solidarity in order to better living standards, strengthen job security, and improve health and safety in our workplaces.

We shape the family-sustaining jobs we hold, and we demand what we deserve even when the industry outlook is bleak.

This time is no different. When we stand in solidarity, we can rise to take on the challenges ahead of us.

Past Achievements Include:

1967

Rate retention and 25 percent shift premium

1971

Non-contributory pensions and extra paid holiday

1973

First health and safety clauses

1975

Additional paid holiday

1977

125 percent shift premium

1979

30 years =6 weeks of vacation

1982

Life insurance improvements

1990

$250,000 death benefit for workplace deaths

1993

Company-paid health and safety training

1997

Successorship language

2002

50 percent shift premium, job security provisions, increased death benefit to $500,000

2009

Preserved NOBP pattern and wage increases in face of major global recession

2012

Process safety improvements and implementation of fatigue management

2015

Fought back against industry-proposed concessions with the first major strike in 30 years

2019

Process safety representatives at smaller facilities, progress made on bringing routine maintenance work back in-house

2022

Severance package, expansion of survivor benefits including continuous healthcare options for families, and maintaining successorship language that protects our jobs when facilities are bought or sold

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