Oil Bargaining History and Achievements

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We are stronger when we stand together in solidarity. 

Under the National Oil Bargaining Program, USW Oil Workers across the country join in solidarity to build our bargaining power. Working together is how we level the playing field and take on Big Oil.

For more than five decades, USW Oil workers have stood united and demonstrated our solidarity in order to better living standards, strengthen job security, and improve health and safety in our workplaces.

We shape the family-sustaining jobs we hold, and we demand what we deserve when the industry outlook is bleak.

This time is no different. When we stand in solidarity, we can rise to take on the challenges ahead of us. 

Past Achievements Include: 

1967
Rate retention and 25 percent shift premium 

1971
Non-contributory pensions and extra paid holiday

1973
First health and safety clauses

1975
Additional paid holiday

1977
125 percent shift premium

1979
30 years = 6 weeks of vacation

1982
Life insurance improvements

1990
$250,000 death benefit for workplace deaths

1993
Company-paid health and safety training

1997
Successorship language

2002
50 percent shift premium, job security provisions, increased death benefit to $500,000 

2009
Preserved NOBP pattern and wage increases in face of major global recession

2012
Process safety improvements and implementation of fatigue management

2015
Fought back against industry- proposed concessions with the first major strike in 30 years

2019
Process safety representatives at smaller facilities, progress made on bringing routine maintenance work back in-house 

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