Brothers and Sisters,
We are less than a year away from National Oil Bargaining, and planning for our 2021 National Oil Bargaining Program (NOBP) conference is underway. Given the still ongoing pandemic and the uncertain timeline of the vaccine rollout, our conference will be held virtually Aug. 9-13. Please hold these dates. A formal call letter will be sent out soon. As in the past, our company councils will have the opportunity to meet in the days leading up to the conference.
We all know how challenging the past year has been, so we’ll have our work cut out for us during this conference. But I’m confident that the conference will be a success and produce a solid policy.
The policy committee has started meeting and either has been or soon will be reaching out to locals on some issues. Below is the policy committee and alternates:
Region A (District 1, 2, 7)
Mike Edelbrock
Eric Sweeney
Region B (District 4, 8, 9, 10)
DeVon Crawford
Kevin Herbein
Region C (District 11)
Robin Tokach
Robert Cammarn
Region D (District 12)
Casey Wardell
Shannon Kelley
Region E (District 13)
Brandi Sanders
Eric Roy
As all this gets underway, I’d also like to call your attention to another effort the union launched last month called We Supply America. We’re pushing for massive infrastructure investments to help stimulate every sector of the economy. If this is done right, there is potential for securing and growing hundreds of thousands of USW jobs. Please take a few minutes to answer our brief survey that will help us understand what matters to you and how our union helps supply America’s infrastructure needs.
In other news, I wanted to let you know that three of our fellow union members were seriously injured in a recent incident stemming from a furnace tube leak on a heater at a Citgo plant in Corpus Christi, Texas. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers as we hope for a full recovery.
We wish the best to our brothers and sisters impacted by the recent cold spell in Texas. In addition to the high toll in human suffering, the freeze also caused a sharp drop in both domestic crude production and refining. Overall output fell by 1.1 million bpd the week of Feb. 19, while refinery utilization rates fell by 14.5 percent.
This comes at a difficult time for our industry, following a year of uncertainty and reduced demand. It’s not altogether surprising then that major producers are now more openly discussing ways to move into renewable fuels, including Marathon’s decision last year to idle its Martinez, Calif., refinery.
Finally, I wanted to update you on our union brothers and sisters from the Teamsters Local 120 who are still nearly two months later locked out from Marathon’s St. Paul Park refinery. Marathon is now facing outside pressure to end the lockout, including from a slate of state treasurers who contacted the company in early March.
It’s clear that we have a lot of work to do this year, but I know we can rise to meet the challenges ahead. In the meantime, please stay safe and watch for more information about the National Oil Bargaining Conference.
In solidarity,
Mike Smith
NOBP Chair
mjsmith@usw.org