Teamsters take fight to Marathon as refinery dispute enters fifth month

May 25, 2021 by

Mornings are a congested, busy time at the main gate outside Marathon’s St. Paul Park refinery. Semi trucks line up on both sides of the gate, waiting to cross a picket line held by Teamsters who, since January, have been holding out for a contract that protects local jobs and the safety of communities surrounding the refinery.

Local authorities have ruled no more than three members of Local 120 may picket an entrance to the refinery at one time, but dozens of Teamsters show up to the main gate anyway. They take turns on the line, keep each other company and otherwise pass the time.

It’s a slow-moving, but essential part of Local 120’s campaign against Marathon. But it’s not for everyone.

Almost every morning since the work stoppage began, a handful of Teamsters have volunteered for what’s known as “ambulatory picketing.” They pick out a truck exiting the refinery, tail it wherever it goes and picket outside the facility as the truck unloads. When the truck finishes unloading, the picket comes down.

More often than not, those trucks end up at a Speedway.

Picketing outside the refinery annoys Marathon and its vendors, but ambulatory picketing gives refinery workers like Ryan Bierman, whose pickup truck has been on “well over a hundred” picketing runs, an opportunity to educate the public.

“I enjoy just getting out and talking to different people about what’s going on with our strike and what the company wants to do, cutting potentially up to 50 local jobs and putting pretty much the whole plant at risk,” Bierman said. “And with that plant being so tightly-knit into different communities – St. Paul Park, Newport, Cottage Grove – if there is a major fire, an explosion or a chemical release, all these other communities are going to be put at risk too.”

Dick Briguet, Mason Bahl and Alex Kittleson advise Speedway customers in Brooklyn Center that the gas they’re about to purchase crossed a picket line.

Bierman typically livestreams the ambulatory picket on his social media account, where thousands of people have watched as he and other picketers use megaphones to warn approaching vehicles that the Speedway or other station is getting a delivery of “scab gas” from St. Paul Park.

“I’m letting people know that the highly trained employees who are normally in there making the fuel are not in there making the fuel,” refinery worker Dick Briguet said. “They brought in other workers to make it, other people in there testing it, so we can’t personally guarantee that it’s quality fuel.”

Local 120 members cannot legally call for a boycott of stations selling Marathon’s gas, but the union is finding creative and effective ways to pressure Marathon, the nation’s largest independent refining company, to get back to the table and bargain a fair, safe contract.

In advance of the company’s April 28 virtual shareholder meeting, the Teamsters led a successful campaign to convince 70% of voting shareholders to oppose the company’s executive compensation – a pay structure headlined by $6 million in restricted stock for the outgoing chairman and CEO, Gary Heminger. It was the largest margin of defeat in a “say-on-pay” vote at any S&P 500 energy company this year, according to the union.

“Marathon investors are not impressed with the golden parachutes the company provides its executives, the 379:1 CEO-to-median-employee pay ratio, and the risks the company has created by jeopardizing safety at its St. Paul Park refinery by locking out its workers,” Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall said. “Placing workers, the community and the environment at undue risk is a clear … failure reflected in the vote.”

Last Friday workers from the St. Paul Park refinery traveled to Ohio, where they rallied for an end to the strike with local Teamsters and lawmakers. Earlier in the week, St. Paul Park workers staged an action in Findlay, Ohio, home of Marathon’s headquarters.

Closer to home, the Marathon dispute has prompted several Minnesota legislators to look into changing state law to ensure an adequately trained workforce in local refineries.

And Local 120 has rolled out a “Burn Zone” campaign to raise awareness of the devastating impact a safety incident at the St. Paul Park refinery could have on surrounding communities. Text “BURN” to 86466 or visit areyouintheburnzone.com to learn more.

Members of Education Minnesota, LIUNA and the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation join Teamsters in raising awareness of the ongoing dispute at Marathon’s St. Paul Park refinery, which supplies most Speedway gas stations in the area.

“Teamsters are punching above their weight in this fight, and it’s inspiring to see,” St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson said. “So is the solidarity other union members have offered these refinery workers, who are taking a stand for everyone’s safety.”

When people understand what’s going on in St. Paul Park, they typically support the Teamsters’ cause, refinery worker Mason Bahl said. That’s why he likes ambulatory picketing.

“It actually gives you a sense a satisfaction to go to a Minnoco or another independently owned station and talk to the manager, and they agree without you,” Bahl said. “They say, ‘Hey, we get it. We won’t get fuel from your refinery anymore.’”

“We just try to tell people what’s going on, why we’re here and how to help us out,” refinery worker Alex Kittleson added. “And a lot of people seem to understand that it’s about safety for ourselves, our families and our communities.”

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Community rallies around refinery workers as Marathon lockout enters third week

February 5, 2021 by

Gov. Tim Walz rallies with locked-out refinery workers in St. Paul Park.

ST. PAUL PARK – As picketing at the refinery in this small, suburban community entered a third week, members of Teamsters Local 120 and Gov. Tim Walz ratcheted up the pressure on Marathon last night with a rally highlighting workers’ safety concerns.

Each day the lockout continues, Local 120 steward Tylor Sardeson warned, Marathon is putting its workers and surrounding communities at risk.

“We’re on this side of the fence,” said Sardeson, a crude operator at the facility. “It’s the wrong side of the fence to make sure this place stays safe.”

Nearly 200 Teamsters are standing together to resist the company’s demand for dramatically different staffing inside the refinery, including the ability to replace union members with workers from lowest-bidder subcontractors.

“They’re going to add more jobs to my plate, and I don’t even feel comfortable with the ones I have right now,” Local 120 steward Dean Benson said. “Safely, it’s just not possible.”

Walz listened as workers and family members laid out the stakes of contract negotiations with Marathon. Rhiannon Sklavenitis fought back tears as she recalled a serious burn injury her husband suffered at the refinery, which left her more afraid for his safety than when he was deployed into combat with the Navy.

The governor then took the stage and called on Marathon “to get back to the table” and “make sure safety is at the center” of talks. He praised union members for taking a stand.

“It’s about the safety of this community,” Walz said. “I can’t tell you how grateful I am for that.”

Elected officials have tread a beaten track to St. Paul Park since the work stoppage began, offering their support to Teamsters on the picket line. Some lawmakers have taken managers at the refinery to task for locking out experienced workers.

U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, in a letter to local Marathon executive Amy Macak, noted ownership of the refinery has changed multiple times in recent years, but its “dependable, highly-skilled, local union-represented workforce” has been a constant presence.

“The breakdown of contract negotiations and use of outside contractors by Marathon raises serious questions about safety,” McCollum wrote, adding that the 2018 explosion at Husky Energy’s refinery in Superior, Wis., serves as a “grave reminder of the need to maintain the highest standards for safety.”

Members of other local unions are showing their solidarity with locked-out Teamsters as well, joining them on the picket line, providing food and other supplies, and contributing to workers’ defense fund.

“There are a whole bunch of unions in this crowd,” Kera Peterson, president of the 66,000-member St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, told locked-out workers during the rally. “This fight is Minnesota’s fight, and we are with you in this for the long haul, as long as it takes.”

Teamsters who work at the St. Paul Park refinery – electricians, operators, maintenance and other workers – originally went on strike Jan. 21, three weeks after their union contract expired.

After 24 hours on the picket line, striking workers offered to return to their jobs, but they were turned away at the gate – a move Local 120 President Tom Erickson called the most reckless he’s seen in 30 years negotiating contracts.

The two sides have held at least one bargaining session since the lockout began. But like the 24 sessions leading up to the lockout, it was negotiations in name only, union members said.

Jim Swanson, an electrician at the refinery, told U.S. Sen. Tina Smith on the picket line Saturday that union members make sure to bring their phones into bargaining, so they have something to read after the company’s negotiators walk out of the room.

Local 120 members Luke Naber and Tyler Sardeson demonstrate outside the Speedway in St. Paul Park, informing potential customers about the refinery lockout.

“They just haven’t negotiated at all,” Swanson said. “It seemed like they had an agenda right from the beginning. I think they planned to not even negotiate and have us go on strike.

“We never brought up money once,” he added. “I don’t think anybody here is concerned about money. It’s issues in the refinery – safety stuff and trying to eliminate positions.”

As the lockout drags on, Local 120 members have begun following trucks from the refinery to local freight yards and Speedway gas stations, looking to raise awareness of the lockout.

While they cannot legally call for a boycott of Speedway, workers can advise potential customers that the fuel being sold crossed a picket line, and that the company has locked out workers whose training and experience keeps St. Paul Park and its surrounding communities safe.

“We don’t want the Husky incident to happen here,” Sardeson said. “I live in Cottage Grove. My children go to school here in Cottage Grove. It’s very important to me that the facility stays running and stays safe.”

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Teamsters at Marathon’s St. Paul Park refinery strike over safety

January 21, 2021 by

Members of Teamsters Local 120 picket the main gate at Marathon’s St. Paul Park refinery as the sun rises on Day 2 of their ULP strike.

Operations and maintenance workers at Marathon Petroleum’s refinery in St. Paul Park went on strike today. Members of Teamsters Local 120 say they are taking a stand not just for good jobs, but also for the safety of their community.

At issue in the dispute is management’s ability to replace union members with workers from lowest-bidder subcontractors, including firms from outside Minnesota.

“We want a contract that protects jobs where the money goes back into our communities, jobs for people who have an interest in the safety of our community,” Local 120 Business Agent Scott Kroona said. “If somebody comes in from Texas or Indiana, which is what the company wants, their money goes back to Texas or Indiana. And they don’t care about St. Paul Park.”

Local 120 represents nearly 200 workers at the Marathon refinery.

Picket lines went up at each of the facility’s gates at 5 p.m., and they will stay up around the clock indefinitely, Kroona said.

With Teamsters outside, it raises the question of who’s doing the work inside the refinery. Kroona said he expected the company to bring in replacement workers.

“I have to believe they are not as skilled or well-trained as the workers we have in there,” he said. “And when you’ve got petroleum products under high temperatures and high pressure, every job is dangerous. I don’t care how minor a job you’d call it.”

As proof, the union pointed to an April 2018 explosion at the Husky refinery in Superior, Wis., which resulted in worker injuries and residential evacuations in the area. Contractors working in the refinery at the time later sued the company.

“These are some of the most dangerous jobs you can have,” Local 120 President Tom Erickson said. “Mistakes are literally life and death, not just for workers but for people in the community and the environment.”

By refusing to bargain over the impact of contract language that would put more subcontracted workers in the facility – impacts like safety risks – Marathon is forcing union members to take a stand for their community, Kroona added.

“We don’t want to happen at St. Paul Park what happened at Superior,” he said. “We absolutely don’t want something like that to happen here, and it absolutely could happen here.”

The union has filed charges of unfair labor practices against Marathon, claiming the company, in 24 negotiating sessions since late November, has bargained in bad faith.

“Marathon never had the intention of reaching a contract from the very beginning,” Kroona said.

Local 120’s previous agreement with Marathon, a three-year pact, expired Dec. 31.

Teamsters who work at the St. Paul Park refinery last went on strike in the summer of 2006.

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UPDATED: Teamsters authorize strike at St. Paul Park refinery

December 23, 2013 by

Workers at Northern Tier refinery in St. Paul Park voted Dec. 16 to authorize their leadership to call a strike if the company continues to demand cuts that, workers say, “could dramatically undermine the safety of operations” at the facility.

Northern Tier is in contract negotiations with about 200 members of Teamsters Local 120 who work at the refinery. Their current contract expires Dec. 31.

If Local 120 members strike, it could affect the supply chain for more than 200 SuperAmerica retail outlets in Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin that are owned or operated by Northern Tier. Additionally, Local 120 represents workers at SuperMom’s Bakery, which supplies SuperAmerica stores.

“If there is a strike, SuperAmerica customers will need to go elsewhere for fuel this winter,” Local 120 Business Agent Chris Riley warned.

Joe Riley, a Local 120 member who has worked at the refinery for more than 30 years, said he and his co-workers refuse to allow Norther Tier to put its own profits ahead of their safety on the job.

“Management’s proposals to eliminate jobs, cut wages as much as 40 percent and enforce other onerous changes to working conditions will drive trained professionals away from this very dangerous work,” Joe Riley said.

“In this line of business, we worry every day about an explosion or deadly leak. We just cannot work under the proposed conditions. It isn’t safe.”

*****UPDATE 01/14/14 – Local 120 members at Northern Tier refinery have voted to approve a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract. The two sides struck a deal in the final hours before their previous contract expired Dec. 31.

Local 120 announced the tentative agreement on its website and claimed victory in the dispute, saying management backed away from its demands to cut staffing levels, which prompted safety concerns among workers.

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