Striking refinery workers restart negotiations

Refinery workers at nine oil refineries and plants went back to the bargaining table late Monday, a day after they started the first major United States refinery strike in 35 years.

Royal Dutch Shell is negotiating with the United Steel Workers for a contract on behalf of various oil companies, the Houston Chronicle reported.

{mosads}“Representatives from Shell and the United Steel Workers union resumed communications on Monday in hopes of coming to a mutually satisfactory contract agreement,” Ray Fisher, a Shell spokesman, said in a statement to the Chronicle.

In the days before the strike, the union rejected five national contract offers from Shell.

Wages were a top issue, but protections against forced overtime, health and safety improvements and limitations on jobs being contracted out were also major points of contention, the Chronicle said.

Shell surprised the union with its brash negotiating style, Reuters reported.

The company had new negotiators that the Steel Workers were not familiar with, and used low oil prices as a major bargaining chip.

“We were very, very shocked,” union President Leo Gerard told Reuters. “Shell has been a responsible lead company in years past. We have been able to have rational, reasonable negotiations with them.”