Labor & Employment Law

USW: Oil Safety Issues Must be Negotiated

By James Parks

 The United Steelworkers (USW) wants to sit down with the oil industry to discuss health and safety issues.

The public?s awareness of the lack of oil industry safety has been heightened by the tragic BP/Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 workers, set off the largest oil spill in Gulf history and put thousands of people out of work. But the reality is that safety has been an ongoing problem.

During April and May, there were 13 fires, 19 deaths and 25 injuries in the oil industry, USW says. This year, refineries have averaged one fire per week. These figures reflect only reported incidents. There could be more because refineries have no legal obligation to report every incident.

USW Vice President Gary Beevers, who heads the union’s oil sector, said in a statement:.

I’ve asked the industry to sit down and have an honest discussion about handling safety effectively. Let’s conduct a thorough analysis, then negotiate a signed agreement that addresses the alarming deterioration in safety throughout the oil industry.

 The same loose attitude toward risk and willingness to put cost ahead of safety that led to the Deepwater Horizon disaster exist throughout the oil industry. It’s not just offshore drilling and it’s not just BP.

 The negotiations with the oil industry would require reopening the national pattern agreement and would cover such items as process safety, the right to refuse unsafe work, fatigue and reporting of process safety indicators. The oil industry has responded that it is not interested in reopening negotiations with USW.

As the Gulf disaster has demonstrated, refinery safety is everybody’s business, Beevers said, affecting the community as well as workers. Worker involvement is key for creating effective safety programs.

We need enforceable health and safety provisions, whether it’s through negotiations with the industry or through regulation and legislation. We prefer direct negotiations, but if the industry refuses to bargain, we are prepared to go to Congress, OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration], EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)?whatever it takes.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on July 06, 2010 (boomark / email).