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Philadelphia—United Steelworkers Union (USW) Locals 10-1 from Philadelphia and 10-901 from Marcus Hook, Pa., gave a 24-hour strike notice to Sunoco, Inc. around noon EST today. If an agreement is not reached by noon EST Sunday, March 1 when the contract expires, workers from both refinery locals will go out on strike.
“We’re not making much progress,” USW International Vice President Gary Beevers said. “However, there is still time for the company to avoid a costly strike and agree to accept the National Oil Bargaining pattern agreement like they did at their Toledo, Ohio, refinery. We will not accept any contract that does not meet the pattern.”
Sunoco is the only company to not accept the pattern agreement during this round of National Oil Bargaining. The pattern agreement includes a letter of agreement on job security that says employees represented by the union will not be involuntarily laid off except in a decreased level of operation caused by the sale of operating units, complete or partial plant closure, a merger or a joint venture resulting in a change of managerial control or an act of God.
Sunoco does not want to abide by the job security letter because it wants to lay off workers while continuing to operate its Philadelphia and Marcus Hook refineries at full capacity. The job cuts and the company’s desire to combine jobs are the two main issues separating the parties. Sunoco is proposing to eliminate 100 out of 400 operators at its Philadelphia refinery. At its Marcus Hook facility, it wants to cut 60 out of 270 operators and 30 of its 150 mechanics, and is proposing pay cuts for certain employees.
“Sunoco’s proposed cuts are a recipe for a potential disaster,” Beevers said. “It wants to have too few people doing too many jobs, and this is a formula for worker fatigue and mistakes that can lead to releases, explosions and fires that impact the surrounding community.
“Sunoco says that the safety of its employees, contractors and neighbors continues to be its main focus. It’s time the company’s actions match its words. We do not need a repeat of the March 2005 explosion and fire that rocked BP’s Texas City refinery, killing 15 workers and injuring 180 more,” Beevers said.
The USW represents more than 1,250 workers at Sunoco’s Philadelphia and Marcus Hook refineries. The union represents 30,000 oil workers in the production, refining, marketing, transportation, pipeline and petrochemical sectors of the oil industry.
The USW is the largest industrial union in North America and has 850,000 members in the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean and Aruba. It represents workers employed in metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining, atomic energy and the service sector. For more information on oil bargaining and its history, go to www.oilbargaining.org or www.usw.org.
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