Refinery strike 2015: rise of the machines

摘要

On Sunday, Feb. 1, talks between the United Steelworkers (USW) union and Royal Dutch Shell—the latter representing refiners across the US—broke down and the union decided to strike, declaring work stoppages at seven refineries and two other facilities. At last report, the strike was still ongoing. The refineries—Tesoro's 166K-b/d Martinez, CA, 240K-b/d Carson, CA, and 120K-b/d Anacortes, WA; Marathon Petroleum's 242K-b/d Cadettsburg, KY and 451K-b/d Galveston Bay, TX; Shell's 327K-b/d Deer Park, TX and LyondellBasell's 264K-b/d Houston, TX—have a combined capacity of 1.82MM b/d and make up about 10% of the country's total refining capacity. Sources noted that Tesoro had been targeted particularly because of reductions to profit-sharing and pension benefits that the company had pushed through in 2012. The latest news indicated that USW workers at BP's 400K-b/d Whiting, IN and its jv 160K-b/d refinery (with Husky Energy) at Toledo, OH will also walk off fhe jobs at 11:59 pm on Feb. 7. These additional two plants will raise the total affected refining capacity to about 13%. Currendy, 200 refineries, chemical plants, pipelines, and fuel terminals employ union workers; a full strike would interrupt two-thirds of US fuel production.