PORT ARTHUR- by Haley BullA break in negotiations between USW and Shell could set a pattern to end strikes at refineries nationwide. Late Thursday afternoon, the two parties reached a tentative 4 year agreement. It comes nearly a month after union workers at Motiva in Port Arthur joined workers at about a dozen other refineries across the nation on strike. According to a spokesperson for Shell, the tentative agreement includes a 12 percent wage increase over 4 years, renewal of healthcare, opportunities for discussion on the future of craft workers, semi-annual reviews of site practices related to fatigue and no going back on aspects of previous agreements. We are glad to have found common ground and get an agreement in place. Our gratitude goes to everyone whose effort kept our refineries and chemical plants running safely and reliably throughout these past weeks, stated Aamir Farid, vice president of Manufacturing in an email to KFDM News from a Shell spokesperson. We know its been a challenging time on both sides of the picket line. Now, as teams come back together, lets welcome everyone back with care and respect. We will continue moving forward, together. Local union members said theyre waiting to get the details of the tentative agreement, but hopeful.Well you first wanna jump for joy but you gotta hold back and wait you know, USW Workmens Committee Motiva group member Garrett Ozment said. Once we see that tentative agreement that will be when the load of bricks come off of everybody and we begin to move forward and go repair things that weve possibly lost relationship wise. Everybody wants to go back to work and see what it looks like you know.The relationship appears to be on the mend after the two parties reached the tentative agreement in Houston after a week of negotiating.Its a lot of hope, weve been real hopeful since they got back together in Houston and pretty much scheduled the whole week to talk and they continued talking all week and neither side got angry and left the table, USW Workmens Committee Motiva group member Brian Strohm said. Were pretty hopeful and then today when we heard this, it made a, made a big relief.According to a union spokesperson, the tentative agreement includes the immediate review of staffing and workload assessments related to safety, addresses daily maintenance and repair work, hiring plans, yearly wage increases and maintaining gains made in past negotiations.Everyone wants to go back to work, you want your life to resume like it was, you want to make sure everything happens but you also want to be on the cautious side, make sure that we do have everything in place when we bring it up to our membership, USW Workmens Committee Motiva group chairman Cookie Sonnier said. If the tentative agreement is ratified by local union members, talks could then start on reaching a back to work agreement.Well be going strong as long as it takes and we get a return to work agreement and well go back to work, Ozment said.Until then, the people picketing outside Motiva in Port Arthur will keep walking.
