EMNJ4-10

January 10, 2002

The rumormongers have a real good one going (it wouldn't surprise us if they were salaried employees). Word is, should a strike or lockout occur, the members of the Workman's Committee would continue to get paid. If this weren't such a serious issue -- it would probably be funny. The Committee will receive the exact same benefits as the membership. They will also be the first to be on the picket line. One of the benefits all members of this local will receive is the PACE Adopt a Family program. This is the program that aided over 160 union members at the Crown refinery in Texas during a 5-year lockout. And that ain't no rumor, it's a fact.

Our International Union began formal negotiations with Shell Oil at the beginning of this week. As far as we know, things seem to be going okay at this point. When we hear more, we'll let you know.

On the Local Front, there's nothing new to report. No meetings were held today. If memory serves me right, in addition to mandatory overtime, another item on the company's wish list is to get rid of the Marlo Foster Letter and the Overtime Preference Guidelines. Seems they don't lik following rules when trying to fill overtime. The Workman's Committee would like to get together to review the rest of this list, but that could take a while. Four members of the Committee are process operators and finding a day when they are all not on shift just isn't that easy. It's too bad that we aren't being treated like the three other ExxonMobil refineries that are in negotiations right now and given time to work on the company's demands. There's no doubt that if we were given this time, we would have asked to meet with them to respond to their demands. Apparently, this just isn't that important to them.

January 9, 2002

When our new plant manager, Bruce Brodie, first came to this refinery, we hoped that his Mobil background would indicate our Union and management relations might improve. After today's meeting, it's apparent it didn't take long for our local management to Exxonize him.

At the other three former Mobil sites that PACE represents, the company has decided to get serious at these negotiations and have taken all of the Workman's Committee off their schedules and kept them whole to concentrate on working their issues. For example, at the ExxonMobil Beaumont refinery, 18 members of the Workman's Committee are being treated in this fashion. Even in Yellowstone Valley, both Conoco and Cenex refineries pay the Workman's Committee members while they are doing work related to negotiations, whether at the refinery or the Union hall.

Things are different here at Billings Exxon. Today, after exchanging local proposals, the company informed us that any work we needed to do on their starting 12 DEMANDS would be done without pay and on our own time. Remember, these are COMPANY demands! To demonstrate their hyprocrisy, a management team member skipped a regular monthly Joint Labor Management Health and Safety Committee meeting on Tuesday to prepare for today's negotiations meeting. To further demonstrate this, the Workman's Committee was informed today that they couldn't talk negotiations related issues while at work and on the clock. If we do, then it's without pay.

The Workman's Committee understands the apprehension the membership has as we get closer to the expiration of the contract. However, since the company doesn't seem serious about settling the issues at hand, this will probably be a long drawn out process. Please bear with us. Oh, by the way, mandatory overtime reared its ugly head again. Keep logging for further updates.

January 8, 2002

The next meeting with the company is on Wednesday, January 9th at 7:30 am at the Northern Hotel. Local issues are supposed to be the topic of discussion. Some of the information the Union asked for was given to us on Monday, January 7th. However, our request for the actuary figures for the medical and dental insurance, broken down for wage earners at Billings Refinery, has not been fulfilled. The company claims that they may not be able to break out Billings figures from the rest of the corporation. This seems hard to believe given the way the company micro-manages these days. In any event, the Workman's Committee will push forward and do the job the membership has asked them to do. More tomorrow.

January 4, 2002

The first meeting between the company and the Workman's Committee for the 2002 contract negotiations was held on January 4th. This meeting lasted approximately two and a half hours and primarily covered the ground rules that will be used for these negotiations. The company was formally presented the National Oil Bargaining Committee Proposals and shown a video that explains each proposal. Local proposals were not exchanged at this time. The Workman's Committee is waiting for information on the medical and dental insurance plans that they formally asked for. When this information is given to the Union, which should only take a few days, then a second meeting will be scheduled. Until then, your Workman's Committee is working hard to prepare the local package they will present to the company.