By Nicole Jao
NEW YORK, May 18 (Reuters) – BP and union leaders resumed labor contract negotiations for workers at the Whiting, Indiana, oil refinery on Monday with no agreement yet, as a lockout entered its third month this week.
Some 800 workers at the 440,000-barrel-per-day refinery, the largest in the U.S. Midwest, have been locked out since March 19 after months of negotiations failed to produce a new labor contract.
“During today’s meeting, the USW again requested that BP Whiting refinery lift the lockout, but were still unwilling to resume meaningful discussions on items critical to the future of the refinery,” BP said on Monday.
The British oil major said talks could only continue if the lockout remained in place.
The Steelworkers had previously accused BP of being unwilling to lift the lockout unless workers accept the company’s demands.
“The company is trying to use mortgage payments, grocery bills, health care worries, and family pressure as bargaining leverage,” said USW Local 7-1 President Eric Schultz. “We are ready to bargain, but British Petroleum should stop using this lockout to pressure workers and their families into accepting concessions.”
The union has raised concerns about a range of issues, including job cuts, pay reductions, management rights language, seniority issues and an extended six-year agreement.
BP has been running the plant using contract workers during the lockout, which has come at a time of soaring fuel prices as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil transits, has dragged on with the Iran war.
Last month, the Whiting oil refinery experienced a brief power outage causing one of its processing units to be shut down.
(Reporting by Nicole Jao in New York and Anushree Mukherjee in Bengaluru)
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