Strikes the Latest Threat Facing US Oil Industry - TIME - This article originally appeared on Oilprice.com
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Workers are on strike at nine oil refineries and chemical plants around the United States in the largest such job action in 35 years.
Members of the United Steelworkers union (USW) who are employed by more than 200 US oil terminals and pipelines as well as refineries and chemical plants struck the nine facilities on Feb. 1after negotiations with several oil companies failed to end in an agreement on wages, safety and benefits. The contract covers 30,000 hourly workers.
The negotiations had begun Jan. 21 with a settlement deadline at midnight, Jan. 31. The USW had rejected five offers by the companies lead negotiator, Royal Dutch Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil giant representing several large oil companies operating in the United States, including Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp.
“Shell refused to provide us with a counter-offer and left the bargaining table,”USW International President Leo Gerard said. “We had no choice but to give notice of a work stoppage.”
From Shell headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, company spokesman Ray Fisher said Shell was eager to resume negotiations. “We remain committed to resolving our differences with USW at the negotiating table and hope to resume negotiations as early as possible,” he said.
Although picket lines were set up at nine of the companies’ facilities, only one has restricted production. But a walkout affecting all 200-plus facilities would stall up to 64 percent of American fuel production.
The USW issued a statement saying the refineries directly affected by the strike have optimum production levels of 1.82 million barrels of fuel per day. They include Tesoro Corp.’s plants in California and Washington state, Marathon Petroleum’s facilities in Kentucky and Texas, and complexes owned by Shell and LyondellBassell Industries in Texas.
The last time the union had called a strike was in 1980, a three-month work stoppage in which the companies used salaried workers to do the jobs of striking USW members. This one comes as oil companies around the world already are reeling because of the steep plunge in the price of oil, which has lost nearly 60 percent of its value since June 2014.
Despite Shell’s stated eagerness to resolve the outstanding issues, the company turned to a strike contingency plan at its huge refinery and chemical plant in Deer Park, Texas, to keep it productive. Other companies were doing likewise, including Tesoro, which said managers were operating its refinery in Carson, Calif., and planned similar substitutions at its other affected facilities.
The USW said all other refineries where its members work would continue operating under rolling 24-hour contract extensions, just as in 1980. These facilities including Exxon Mobil’s refinery in Beaumont, Texas.
This article originally appeared on Oilprice.com.
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Obama Unveils Budget, Setting Up Battle With Congressby webdesk@voanews.com (Luis Ramirez)
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The Russian-backed revolt in eastern Ukraine has forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, taking an emotional toll. Most of them are in government-controlled parts of the two eastern districts that the rebels claim. One small group huddles in a church hall in the Donetsk Region city of Artemivsk, just 40 kilometers from the front line. This small unassuming building in a residential neighborhood has become a safe haven. In the technical jargon of international law, these are ‘internally displaced persons,’ but they call themselves ‘refugees.’ Paul is a protestant pastor. He fled the rebel stronghold Donetsk City early in the conflict. “I left at the end of June because it was a quite strange situation. It was difficult to express, a danger to express, my point of view. It was a danger to my life," said Paul. These people led simple lives in small towns and villages before the Ukrainian revolution a year ago. Shortly afterwards, Russian President Vladimir Putin sparked a revolt in eastern Ukraine by residents who feel a traditional, cultural allegiance to Russia, and fear Ukraine’s shift toward the West. But these ‘refugees,’ although Russian speakers from the same area, feel the opposite, and have had their lives turned upside down. It was mostly the women who wanted to talk. “Yesterday, I brought my 90-year-old mother here because during the night a shell landed, at 10pm, right outside our window, and everything was blown to pieces," said Nadezhda. “I saw the explosions. I saw the shelling. I was afraid to sleep at night. I was afraid if I fell asleep the house would blow up," said Galina - a social worker. The war and the hasty, sometimes desperate, moves have also been hard on the children, with changes of schools and new social groups to fit into. And they say they miss the friends and family members they left behind. “I connect with my friends from Avdievka from time to time, when it’s possible, because they have no service, no electricity. It’s really hard for them to charge their phones. If I manage to reach them, my friends tell me there’s shelling every day," said Anya - a student. Here in the relative safety of Artemivsk, they make the best of it with new friends and donated winter clothes. “We get help - food and clothes. Because we left in shorts and tee shirts, and now we have full wardrobes. It’s just so nice that the world is thinking about us," said Galina. “The children are going to school and manage to get music lessons. We’re really trying to make their lives a little closer to the life we had," said Olga - a teacher. But there is also the nagging fear that the nearby rebels, backed by Russian troops, supplies and training, could force them to flee again. “I can’t accept the idea of them coming here because they are just annihilating our people, our land. It’s not right. It’s not fair," said Nadezhda. These people say they hope to go home someday. But peace talks broke down after just a few hours on Saturday. Rhetoric is harsh from both sides. And pressure is growing for the West to provide lethal aid to the Ukrainian military. They will likely be here, or perhaps farther west, for some time.
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The parents of Mexican students believed murdered by a drugs gang appealed to the United Nations on Monday for help in seeking justice, saying they had no faith in the government's ability to investigate the crime. President Enrique Pena Nieto's government said last week that the 43 trainee teachers who disappeared four months ago were killed on the orders of a drug cartel who mistook them for members of a rival gang. The killings, which shocked a nation already suffering from endemic crime-related bloodshed, have led to mass protests against the government and fueled the widely held belief that organized crime and certain politicians have close links. "We've decided to come here, to this committee, to get some support and to really obtain justice, given the fact that our government is not able to do anything," Bernabe Abrajan, whose son Adan was one of the victims, told reporters on the sidelines of a U.N. Committee on Enforced Disappearances session. He was wearing a T-shirt bearing a photo of his son. The session began with a minute of silence for the victims. Mexico's attorney general has said that the students' bodies were incinerated and thrown into a river. The remains of only one has been identified so far. The mayor of the town of Iguala and his wife have been arrested as two chief suspects. The committee pressed repeatedly about the scope of investigations, the national data base on missing persons, and protection programmes for witnesses and complainants. Committee member Juan Jose Lopez Ortega asked: "How many public officials have been removed from public office in connection with investigations under way?" Juan Manuel Gomez Robledo, a senior Mexican foreign ministry official and head of the government delegation, said the disappearance of the students showed the need to make a stand against organized crime as well as addressing problems linked to poverty and corruption. Amnesty International said it had documented cases of abductions and disappearances when Mexican security forces, including the army, had supported or turned a blind eye to the work of criminal gangs. The U.N. committee oversees compliance with a treaty banning enforced disappearances through arrest or abduction by state agents or people working with the backing of the state.
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The United States on Monday imposed visa restrictions on current and former Venezuelan officials involved in alleged human rights abuses and on people believed responsible for public corruption in the oil-exporting country. “We are sending a clear message that human rights abusers, those who profit from public corruption, and their families are not welcome in the United States,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement. It said it would not identify the targets of its action because of U.S. visa confidentiality regulations. The restrictions are the latest sign of the strained relations between Washington and Caracas. U.S. President Barack Obama signed legislation in December to impose visa sanctions on Venezuelan officials. Congress had previously approved the measure. U.S. diplomats have said the restrictions would be imposed mainly on Venezuelan security officials who put down protests last year in which 43 people died, including demonstrators, government supporters and security officials, and that they could affect immediate family members. In a speech later on Monday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro slammed the restrictions. “We can't let an empire that has been eyeing all of us ... pretend or think it has the right to sanction the country of Bolivar,” Maduro roared, referencing Latin American liberation hero Simon Bolivar. He said he would write to Obama to make his point. Venezuela's socialist government has long accused Washington of seeking to destabilize its rule to gain control of the OPEC country's oil. Relations worsened after the administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush applauded a botched coup in 2002 against the late President Hugo Chavez. Despite diplomatic tensions, Venezuela has remained one of the top suppliers of oil to the United States. Maduro recently accused U.S. Vice President Joe Biden of plotting to overthrow his administration. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki on Monday described the accusation as “baseless and false.” On Monday, Maduro accused Biden of telling leaders of Caribbean nations that the Venezuelan government's days were numbered and that they should ready themselves for the end of Petrocaribe. Petrocaribe, created by Chavez, allows countries in the Caribbean and Central America to finance oil and fuel purchases at advantageous rates. Maduro insists the program will be maintained, though volumes dropped in 2013 to their lowest level in five years.
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