TX Observer: “A veteran of several contract fights, Kyle has witnessed various ways—some obvious, some subtle—that ExxonMobil has fought to undermine the union’s power. But as he and other union leaders began contract negotiations in January 2021, Kyle could tell that the corporation was taking a harder line. From the first time they met, he said, it was clear that management was gunning for major concessions. Exxon was proposing a contract that would freeze wages for a number of workers and eliminate certain job classifications and seniority rights that the USW had scratched and clawed to secure and protect for decades. “We knew right then and there this [contract] was gonna be a shit pile,” Kyle said.
The union responded with its own counterproposal, which was swiftly rejected by Exxon, declaring it had already made its “last, best, and final offer.” With negotiations stalled, the union then issued notices that it could call for a strike if a deal wasn’t reached before the contract expired on May 1. This time, though, Exxon responded by saying it would lock out the union workers to preempt a strike and began preparing managers and hiring contractors to keep its plants running.
The refinery union was also facing threats from within. Soon after 2021 contract talks launched, some workers began circulating petitions to decertify the union—a process to call a vote to remove the storied United Steelworkers Local as the representative for the Beaumont workers.
The fight is symbolic of a larger struggle between labor unions and Big Oil. And it was playing out inside a refinery that Exxon had long planned to turn into its crown jewel. First built in 1903, the Beaumont refinery is currently the eighth-largest refinery in the country—capable of processing 366,000 barrels of crude oil daily. But it will soon be the largest in North America, once Exxon completes its long-planned construction of a third light crude unit in 2023, expanding capacity by as much as 65 percent.”