2/09/14

Houston Oil Strikes

 

By Jeremy Diemert

 

Across the country, USW (United Steelworkers) members are striking to protest the unfair labor practices of massive energy corporations that are not adhering to the needs (medical and otherwise) of their employees. This is the largest strike of refinery workers since 1980, and Houston, one of the country’s biggest havens for the refining of petroleum and many other natural resources, has had a massive amount of workers (around 5,000) join in the fight against corporate corruption and greed.

The three refineries (Shell Oil Refinery and Chemical Plant, Lyondell Basell Refinery, and Marathon refinery) in Houston with USW strikes have an output of 700,000 barrels a day (10% of the nation’s oil output). Unsafe working conditions, low wages, and lack of proper medical care are only a small part of the long list of unjust working conditions that the strikers are protesting. Despite the fact that many of the refineries have hired temporary workers, the strikes will most certainly prove detrimental to the financial success of these corporations.

The corporations are using some rather nasty and abhorrent tactics to stop the strikers that include not allowing USW members to go into work even if they aren’t participating in the strike. These USW strikes continue to shine a light on the filthy underbelly of corporate America that wallows in greed and excess and doesn’t care about the workers that made them wealthy in the first place.

It is of the utmost importance that we, as residents of the city of Houston, unite with these strikers to help better the conditions of their working environment. The working class of America has been in desperate need of support for a very, very long time, and standing with these courageous workers will help in the fight for a living wage as well as fair and safe working conditions for all. We are fighting for “people before profits” here and the fight wages on. “Workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains!” – Karl Marx