USW Members Ratify Contracts at ExxonMobil Baytown Complex

BAYTOWN, Texas, May 15, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- United Steelworkers (USW) local 13-2001 members tonight ratified three separate agreements with ExxonMobil Baytown for the operations, maintenance and laboratory groups.

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The three-year agreements expire May 15, 2016 and cover about 850 workers at the Baytown complex. They met the provisions of the National Oil Bargaining (NOB) policy, and the local 13-2001 bargaining committee recommended them for approval.

ExxonMobil agreed to bargain over the American Petroleum Institute's recommended practice on fatigue, RP 755, and to establish a limit on the number of consecutive days an employee can work. The company also agreed to a full-time union process safety representative position to address process safety concerns. These two issues had been in contention during negotiations.

Other contract provisions included wage increases of 3 percent the first year, 3 percent the second year and what is negotiated in 2015 for process and maintenance employees at ExxonMobil's locations in Beaumont, Texas, Billings, Mont., Chalmette, La., and Torrance, Calif. that are NOB program sites. Active and retired workers will have access to the same health care plans as non-represented employees. ExxonMobil will pay 76 percent of the premiums with the plan participants paying the remaining 24 percent of the cost.

"We look forward, as a USW NOB program site, to working with ExxonMobil, and within the confines of this agreement, to achieving a higher level of health and safety in the facility," said local 13-2001 President/Business Agent Ricky Brooks. "With the USW's NOB program and all of its participating locals, the petrochemical and oil industry in this country can achieve a workplace where no one gets hurt or killed, and all go home just as they reported to work."  

The ExxonMobil Baytown refinery is the second largest in the country behind the Motiva refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, that is jointly owned by Shell and Saudi Aramco.

The USW is the largest industrial union in North America and has 850,000 members in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. The union represents workers employed in metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining, atomic energy and the service sector.

Contact: Lynne Hancock, USW, 615-828-6169, [email protected]

SOURCE United Steelworkers (USW)