By Ken Stickney

ken.stickney@panews.com

Members of United Steelworkers Local 13-423 Thursday evening reached a tentative agreement with Valero Refinery that will likely keep employees on the job, a workers’ committee spokesman said.

Jeremy McDuffie, vice chair of the committee, said some formalities remained for extending the contract but the tentative deal, reached around 7:45 p.m., appeared set, pending membership approval.

“We were at the table all day,” he said. From the beginning, the goal was to avoid a work stoppage.

McDuffie said worker safety remained of paramount importance to the committee. Issues included seniority and scheduling. Keeping lead operators in a position where they could make work daily work assignments was especially important. He said that’s because the lead operators know their workers’ capabilities and moods best.

“It’s imperative that we have a voice in manpower and safety,” McDuffie said. “To reach a contract, we have to protect the safety of the workers.”

Jon Reed, financial secretary of Local 13-423, said Thursday evening that on a national level, the USW had an acceptable agreement on the table. Of the entities involved in local talks Thursday, Valero plant workers were the last to make a tentative deal.

Others negotiating Thursday on the last day of the contract included local machinists, electrical workers and office workers.

A union spokesman said Thursday morning there were several, local issues on the table for the union. USW represents about 470 of 800 workers at the Port Arthur plant. Their contract was set to expire at midnight.

 

Nationally, the USW, which is representing 30,000 employees who work on pipelines and at refineries and chemical plants, has been in talks for two weeks with Shell Oil, which is representing the companies.

Reed said that locally, employees at Motiva, also represented by USW, have a contract that elapses in three weeks.

A spokesman for Valero’s office in San Antonio was in a meeting and not immediately available to comment.