BP and Marathon are locking out unionized refinery workers at their Whiting, Indiana, and Martinez, California plants, running the sites with contractors and replacement staff instead. The tactic echoes Exxon's 2021 Beaumont lockout, and BP's nearly six-month standoff at Whiting shows how far oil majors will go to win contract concessions.
BP's Whiting refinery has been locked out since March 2026, a standoff nearing six months that shows the biggest oil firms are willing to run operations with replacement workers rather than accept union terms.
A tactic borrowed from Exxon's 2021 playbook
The approach traces back to Exxon, which locked out as many as 650 workers at its Beaumont refinery for 10 months in 2021, the longest labor dispute at a U.S. refinery in four decades. Five years later, BP and Marathon are running the same playbook at Whiting and Martinez, respectively, keeping their refineries operating with contractors, supervisors, and replacement workers throughout the disputes. That continuity undermines one of labor's core bargaining tools: the assumption that skilled unionized staff are essential to keep a refinery running.
Eric Schultz, president of United Steelworkers Local 7-1, told Reuters BP is running "the exact same playbook" as Exxon did in 2021. BP has also hired Jordan Marcks, the former Exxon official who oversaw the Beaumont lockout, as lead negotiator in the Whiting dispute.
BP's offer trails national bargaining standards
BP has offered an average 13% raise, or more than $7 per hour, over four years, with raises in the last two years matching whatever is agreed at the national oil bargaining table. But the proposed 13% for the first two years sits below that national standard. BP also wants to shift some non-core craft line work to third-party contractors and has proposed waivers of bargaining rights over AI tools and time clocks.
Record profits raise the stakes
BP's hardball stance comes as its profit more than doubled in the second quarter from a year earlier, with underlying earnings reaching $5.7 billion on higher oil and gas prices and stronger refining margins. CEO Meg O'Neill is simplifying the business to focus on its most profitable assets as she seeks to make BP's stock attractive to investors again.
Big Oil's push to cut costs continues even as higher crude oil prices and Middle East supply disruptions have driven up trading and refining profits across the industry over the past six months.
Source: Oilprice.com
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