The U.S. oil industry's biggest labor union last week outlined a package of 10 goals it will seek to achieve in 1996-99 contracts.
Job security is No. 1 on the list of goals in about 300 new contracts to be negotiated with the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers International Union. Also on the list are wage increases, improved health insurance, and higher pensions.
Most of the current work agreements expire at midnight Jan. 31, 1996. More than 250 delegates to OCAW's national oil bargaining conference unanimously approved the list of goals Sept. 9.
Delegates represented about 40,000 oil workers throughout the U.S. Most of them work in refineries and petrochemical plants, but others work on pipelines, in marketing, and in oil and gas production. The union says it represents a total of about 100,000 workers throughout the U.S.
Job security
OCAW Pres. Robert E. Wages underscored his members' concern with job security. "There's been no letup in the frenzy of cost cutting which the oil companies have engaged in since the early 1980s -- and none is in sight," he said."Our members have suffered through wave after wave of massive refinery and plant closures, layoffs, and job eliminations. They've watched in anguish as thousands of their fellow workers lost their jobs, wondering if they would be next in having their economic security vanish.
"While laying people off, the companies have mouthed unending euphemisms like restructuring, reorganization, trimming the fat, becoming lean and mean -- and more recently, downsizing, rightsizing, and reengineering -- to sugarcoat the terrorism they've engaged in."
"But those euphemisms can't hide the fact of what their actions really mean in human terms. Lean and mean, which translates to 'they're mean, we're lean,' has left a tragic path of broken families and shattered futures in its wake."
OCAW plans to propose this contract language in new accords:
- "Successor clause. In the event that the employer sells, leases, or otherwise transfers any facility, the employer shall include in any sale, lease, or transfer agreement the requirement that the buyer, lessor, or transferee will employ all bargaining unit employees, will recognize the union as the bargaining agent for those employees and will assume this collective bargaining agreement.
- "Employee complement. The employer shall maintain the complement of employees in the bargaining unit during the term of the agreement."
Other goals
In addition to the two goals in job security, the union plans to seek:- Three year contracts to run from Feb. 1, 1996, to Jan. 31, 1999.
- Wage increases of $1.25/hr in each year of the agreement. OCAW data show the current national average pay for refinery workers is $19.49/hr.
- Companies to absorb hospital/ medical premium increases with no benefit reductions and company dental premium contributions to be increased to $40.50/month for family coverage and to $20.25/month for single coverage.
- Improvement in pension plan formulas to provide for retirement with no actuarial reduction after 30 years of service, with minimum pensions of $40/month for each year of service. The union proposes that the OCAW Union-Industry Pension Plan, a multiemployer fund, be used as a means to achieve this proposal.
- An "OCAW/oil industry pact of mutual respect," calling for company neutrality when employees seek unionization with OCAW to represent them as their bargaining agent. In return, OCAW "will not engage in derisive attacks on the company" and will "conduct any representation campaign fairly, with integrity and full recognition of an employee's legal right to participate or refrain from participation consistent with their legal rights."
- Amendment of current union leave provisions to insure continuation of all employee benefits during the leave period.
- One additional holiday: Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.
- Changes in shift differential payments to provide $1.50/hr for midnight shift work and $1/hr for the evening shift.