Detroit Evening Report: Union workers strike at Detroit Marathon refinery
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Teamsters Local 283 authorized a strike at Marathon Petroleum's Detroit refinery by a 95% vote on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024.
Local 283 President Steve Hicks says they are asking for union security, seniority rights and an increase in pay.
“Since the pandemic, inflation is sky high from 2019 in double digits, and has cut into the spendable income of our members here,” Hicks told WDET. “So we need to get [a] percentage that’s a lot higher than what they are offering, which is 3% per year.”
Hicks says the union sent several emails asking to bargain over the last offer made by Marathon, but were denied.
In a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, Marathon officials said they were “disappointed” that union members decided to go on strike, saying the company has met with union leadership regularly for the last nine months to reach a new labor agreement.
“The company has negotiated in good faith, but the union thus far has been unwilling to agree to acceptable terms for an agreement and, instead, has decided to engage in a strike in support of its bargaining positions,” the statement read. “We are fully prepared and have implemented plans to continue safely operating the facility with trained and qualified Marathon employees, and a safe and orderly handover to these experienced team members has been completed.”
Officials at Marathon say the refinery will continue producing transportation fuels for the region during the strike, and that they “do not anticipate supply disruptions.”
But Jeff Tricoff, a relief worker for the Local 283, says those workers have not had enough training to keep the community safe.
“They are trained and qualified in other plants, not in ours,” Tricoff said. “Every plant is different. Things are located in different places; everything has its own intricacies. It takes us nine months to over a year to train, and they brought them in in a couple of weeks and said they are fully qualified.”
Teamsters workers at the Marathon refinery work in a wide variety of classifications, including board operators, field operators, chemists, laboratory technicians, electricians and mechanics.
Tricoff says the union workers take great pride in keeping the plant one of the safest refineries that Marathon has.
Reporting by Bre’Anna Tinsley, WDET.
Other headlines for Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024:
- A recent poll from The Detroit News and WDIV-TV (Channel 4) of 600 likely voters showed an extremely tight presidential race in Michigan, with 44.7% of participants supporting former President Donald Trump, 43.5% supporting Vice President Kamala Harris, and 7% selecting a third party candidate.
- The same poll shows Democrat Elissa Slotkin with an 8.5-point lead over Republican Mike Rogers in the race for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat.
- Wayne County officials are holding a town hall meeting Wednesday evening to talk about the transport of nuclear waste from New York to a landfill in Van Buren Township. The town hall will take place at 6 p.m. at the Wayne County Community College – Ted Scott Campus in Belleville.
- Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan will host a District 7 community meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday, at Chapel Hill Baptist Church, focused on neighborhood cleanup efforts in commercial areas.
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