NEW YORK -- There was no immediate impact expected at three U.S. oil refineries where workers have rejected a national pattern agreement for new contracts, union officials told Reuters this week.
Negotiators representing workers at the three plants were back at the bargaining table trying to secure agreement, said Lynne Baker, spokeswoman for the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE).
Rejecting the national pattern agreement were workers at the ChevronTexaco Corp. refinery in Richmond, Calif., and Conoco Inc.'s refineries in Commerce City, Colo. and Billing, Mont.
The ChevronTexaco refinery has the capacity to distill about 240,000 barrels per day of crude oil. The Conoco plant in Commerce City has a capacity of about 60,000 bpd and the plant in Billings about 55,000 bpd. Each of the refineries are not expected to have production greatly curtailed even if there are short-lived pickets and strikes as each have plans to have management workers and replacements run the refineries.
