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"Employees will return to work beginning March 7, 2022, with
their exact date of return depending on their normally scheduled
shift," the company said in a message to employees on Saturday
afternoon.
Nearly 600 locked-out workers represented by United Steelworkers
union (USW) Local 13-243 on Saturday approved the agreement that
sets the terms for returning to the refinery where they were
locked out on May 1, 2021, said USW International Representative
Bryan Gross, following the vote.
"It's been a long fight," Gross said. "It's finally coming to an
end. It's not where we wanted it to be, but we'll continue
fighting for our membership and we'll move forward."
Saturday's vote follows ratification on Feb. 21 of a new
six-year contract, ceding to the company a key demand for
control of all job assignments in the 369,024 barrel-per-day
refinery and adjoining Mobil 1 lubrication oil plant.
Exxon began the lockout to avoid a threatened strike after three
months of negotiations failed to yield an agreement.
Exxon had previously said contract ratification and a return
agreement were needed before the lockout would end if the
workers did not remove the USW from the refinery.
The union's future at the refinery will remain up in the air
until the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) counts the
ballots from a vote concluded in December to remove Local 13-243
from the plant. The vote was called for by 30% of the union’s
membership.
The NLRB impounded the ballots until it completes an
investigation into the USW’s charges that Exxon began the
lockout to force the union’s removal.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Leslie Adler and Cynthia
Osterman)
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