Most of the union-led workers at Exxon Mobil Corp's largest US refinery and adjoining chemical plant voted on Thursday night to accept a contract extension offer their labor leaders had urged them to reject, a union official said. The vote by Baytown, Texas, refinery and chemical plant workers to accept the four-year extension to the current agreement was "very, very close," said Ricky Brooks, president of United Steelworkers union (USW) Local 13-2001.
"Today, the membership spoke," Brooks said. "The leadership is going to abide by it." Exxon spokesman Todd Spitler called the early settlement before the contract's May 15 expiration "a successful outcome." USW Local 13-2001 represents about 700 workers in three units at the Baytown complex.
The Laboratory Unit, which accounts for 10 percent of the workers represented by the USW at Baytown, voted to reject the offer and the local will continue to bargain on their behalf. "Exxon Mobil will continue to engage in good faith negotiations with the local USW," Spitler said. "The negotiation process has been successful in the past and has resulted in agreements that were mutually beneficial for both the union and the company," he said. Under the extension, Baytown refinery and chemical plant workers will receive a 3 percent increase in their hourly wages in 2016 and again in 2017 and a 3.5 percent increase in 2018. The increases are equal to those agreed to by the USW and US refinery owners following a national strike in 2015. The pay increase in 2019 will be equal to that agreed to by the USW and refinery owners in talks expected to begin in January 2019. Exxon offered the workers a $2,500 per person bonus for successful ratification of the contract before March 25. The Baytown extension will expire on May 15, 2020.
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