BP, union reach tentative agreement at Whiting

OREANDA-NEWS. BP and striking United Steelworkers (USW) employees have reached a tentative agreement at the company's 410,000 b/d refinery in Whiting, Indiana.

The company confirmed a tentative agreement on a new contract and efforts to settle how union employees would return to work. A union representative could not be immediately reached for comment.

USW workers have been on strike at the refinery since early February as part of what became the largest work stoppage in the US refining industry in more than 30 years. Union workers at 12 refineries representing more than 3.8mn b/d of refining capacity, or 20pc of total US capacity, hit picket lines at the strike's peak.

The majority of workers reached new contracts in March, when a national-level agreement was reached between the USW and refining industry negotiator Shell. But strikes have continued at BP, Marathon Petroleum and LyondellBasell facilities.

The Whiting contract does not include workers still on strike at BP's 157,000 b/d joint venture refinery in Toledo, Ohio. Workers at Marathon Petroleum's 475,000 b/d refinery in Texas City, Texas, remain on strike. Chief executive Gary Heminger said today the company still expected to reach an agreement with union workers there soon.

LyondellBasell declared an impasse with workers at its 268,000 b/d refinery in Houston, Texas, and imposed its final offer contract last week. The union and the company have traded accusations of bad faith bargaining and involved a federal mediator.