By Erwin Seba
HOUSTON -Union workers at Chevron Corp’s Los Angeles refinery in El Segundo, California, ratified the U.S. oil producer’s last, best and final contract offer on Wednesday, a United Steelworkers (USW) local union official said.
The ratification at the southern California refinery comes as USW members at the company’s San Francisco Bay-area refinery in Richmond remained on strike for a third day after twice rejecting a similar contract proposal.
David Campbell, secretary-treasurer of USW Local 12-675, which represents the El Segundo workers, declined to commment on the ratification vote.
“We have negotiated in good faith for months to reach a mutually acceptable agreement with our employees who are represented by the USW Local 675,” Chevron spokesperson Tyler Kruzich said, adding the company was pleased by the ratification.
In Richmond, there has been no progress towards renewing talks between Chevron and USW Local 12-5, which represents the workers at the Richmond refinery, said BK White, first vice president of the local.
Kruzich said the company looks forward to returning to the bargaining table as it continues to operate the Richmond refinery and deliver products to customers.
White said the expiration of a lease on neutral meeting site did not explain why the two sides have not met at the bargaining table since the strike began.
“I don’t believe logistics is the reason we’re not meeting,” he said.
Wholesale prices for California gasoline were unchanged on Wednesday, while retail prices for regular gasoline in the San Francisco Bay area remained between $5.59 and $6.19 per gallon where they have stayed since Sunday.
The 245,271 barrel-per-day (bpd) Richmond refinery has more than 500 union-represented employees while the 269,000-bpd El Segundo plant employs about 1,000 people.
The two refineries supply about 20% of the gasoline in California and are major suppliers of fuel to Los Angeles and San Francisco-area airports.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by David Gregorio and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
