- Lead negotiator Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) says last night's face-to-face negotiations with the United Steelworkers union again failed to reach an agreement to end the 20-day-old U.S. refinery strike.
- Workers at several refineries and chemical plants were waiting for instructions to join the 5K-plus workers at 11 plants, including nine refineries accounting for 13% of U.S. production capacity.
- The strike has hit refineries and plants owned by Shell, BP, LyondellBasell (NYSE:LYB), Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) and Tesoro (TSO) in California, Kentucky, Texas and Washington state; temporary replacement workers so far have kept plants running at nearly normal levels.
- The USW is seeking a three-year, industry-wide pact that would cover 30K workers at 63 U.S. refineries that together account for two-thirds of domestic capacity.