Exxon proposes splitting contracts for workers at a Texas refinery

HOUSTON: Exxon Mobil Corp has proposed separate pay and contract terms for workers who make gasoline and Mobil 1 motor oil at its Beaumont, Texas, facility and a revamping of rules governing refinery jobs, a message posted on a company website showed.

Exxon locked out 650 workers represented by the United Steelworkers union (USW) from the facility on May 1 in a dispute over a new contract. The sprawling 2,700 acre complex, which makes fuel and lubricants, continues to operate with managers and temporary workers.

The proposal to split contract terms for workers based on their assignments would mean no pay raises for the facility's about 130 lubricant plant workers in the first three contract years. The goal is to "improve competitiveness" in a business where wage rates are lower than its own, Exxon wrote.

Refinery workers would get a 1.5% pay increase in the first year and the remaining five years would match whatever raises are negotiated in a national contract, it said on its website.

Exxon spokeswoman Julie King and USW staff representative Hoot Landry both declined to comment on the company's proposal.

USW Local 13-243 negotiators separately offered a six-year proposal that would provide no pay increase for refinery and lube oil plant workers in the first year and match terms of the national accord in subsequent years.

Exxon also wants to implement a series of changes to refinery seniority rules and classifications. It would drop lead operator and assistant operator positions and eliminate seniority as the basis for determining who gets an open position, its website said.

The elimination of seniority differences in pay was identified by sources as the most contentious issue in April.

The two sides held a meeting on Wednesday during which the USW negotiators quizzed Exxon about the union's April 30 proposal, the company website said.

There was no movement on either side, said one person familiar with the matter on condition of anonymity.