refinery workers threaten strike, may close plants

[sammyg2]

The refinery workers union is threatening to go out on strike if they don't get what they want by Saturday which is rumored to be in excess of a guaranteed $1.50 an hour raise for each of the next three years. BP has already talked about shutting down their carson refinery if they call a strike, which is a big refinery. I'd say it's a 50/50 chance.

If this pans out it could cause a significant jump in gas prices in so cal.

Don't these greedy union idjuts know the economy is in the tank and there are millions of people out there who would love a chance at making $33 an hour to sit on their butts? Don't they know oil companies are struggling and shutting down refineries left and right due to low or negative profit margins?

If they go out and we decide to keep the refinery running, I'll be living in the plant 24 hours a day until it's over.
I hate unions. I really, really hate unions. And the people who support unions. I hate them too. ARRGGHHH!

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Hook me up with a job as a refinery scab will ya? I'll gladly go work one of those jobs right now. Hell, I'll even do it for less than $33 an hour. I hate sitting around doing nothing. Drives me frikkin' loopy. I'm keeping busy, but I KNOW I'm just keeping myself busy... Maddening.

[Zeke]

I hate huge bumbling corporations.

[daepp]

"doing a search on "hate" and sammyg2 as the poster turns up 197 posts. surprising?"

What the hell does that mean Jim?

[Jim Richards]

i hate beets

[Jim Richards]

Originally Posted by daepp

"doing a search on "hate" and sammyg2 as the poster turns up 197 posts. surprising?"

What the hell does that mean Jim?

it means I was thinking of teasing sammy, but then deleted it. what does it mean that you felt necessary to repost it? BTW, you conveniently deleted the emoticons. What does that mean, too?

[Jim Richards]

daepp?

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by daepp

"doing a search on "hate" and sammyg2 as the poster turns up 197 posts. surprising?"

What the hell does that mean Jim?

Maybe it means I tell the truth and say it like it is?

BTW, whip out the calcumalator and see what percentage of 11,918 posts 197 turns out to be.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by milt

I hate huge bumbling corporations.

Which corporation do you work for again?

[Jim Richards]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

Maybe it means I tell the truth and say it like it is?

maybe

Wouldn't the strike lead to a bump in gas prices that opens up an opportunity for the oil companies to ramp up their refineries and drive you indies out of business?




daepp?

[VroomGrrl]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

The refinery workers union is threatening to go out on strike if they don't get what they want by Saturday which is rumored to be in excess of a guaranteed $1.50 an hour raise for each of the next three years. BP has already talked about shutting down their carson refinery if they call a strike, which is a big refinery. I'd say it's a 50/50 chance.

If this pans out it could cause a significant jump in gas prices in so cal.

Don't these greedy union idjuts know the economy is in the tank and there are millions of people out there who would love a chance at making $33 an hour to sit on their butts? Don't they know oil companies are struggling and shutting down refineries left and right due to low or negative profit margins?

If they go out and we decide to keep the refinery running, I'll be living in the plant 24 hours a day until it's over.
I hate unions. I really, really hate unions. And the people who support unions. I hate them too. ARRGGHHH!

Greedy UNION idjuts? Are you serious? The oil companies brought home record profits last year. Why SHOULDN'T the people who pulled the crap out of the ground and did the refinery work share in the profit? I think greedy corporate officers are the idjuts. Let them pay their employees who made their bounty possible - or as far as I'm concerned, they can just STFU and do the dirty work themselves. Serves em right.

[billwagnon]

I am trying to muster sympathy for BP, but nope I just can't.

Power to the people.

[lendaddy]

Originally Posted by VroomGrrl

Greedy UNION idjuts? Are you serious? The oil companies brought home record profits last year. Why SHOULDN'T the people who pulled the crap out of the ground and did the refinery work share in the profit? I think greedy corporate officers are the idjuts. Let them pay their employees who made their bounty possible - or as far as I'm concerned, they can just STFU and do the dirty work themselves. Serves em right.

Solidarity!

[Jim Richards]

sammy was talking about his independent refinery, not those belonging to big oil.

BTW, Exxon Mobil just announced record profits on reduced earnings. Earnings down 33%, but profit was $45.2B. I'd sure love to have a tiny slice of that.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

The refinery workers union is threatening to go out on strike if they don't get what they want by Saturday which is rumored to be in excess of a guaranteed $1.50 an hour raise for each of the next three years. BP has already talked about shutting down their carson refinery if they call a strike, which is a big refinery. I'd say it's a 50/50 chance.

If this pans out it could cause a significant jump in gas prices in so cal.

Don't these greedy union idjuts know the economy is in the tank and there are millions of people out there who would love a chance at making $33 an hour to sit on their butts? Don't they know oil companies are struggling and shutting down refineries left and right due to low or negative profit margins?

If they go out and we decide to keep the refinery running, I'll be living in the plant 24 hours a day until it's over.
I hate unions. I really, really hate unions. And the people who support unions. I hate them too. ARRGGHHH!

Sounds like a Job for Texas. And for a few dollars more, we'll sell you the gasoline you're not making anymore

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by VroomGrrl

Greedy UNION idjuts? Are you serious? The oil companies brought home record profits last year. Why SHOULDN'T the people who pulled the crap out of the ground and did the refinery work share in the profit? I think greedy corporate officers are the idjuts. Let them pay their employees who made their bounty possible - or as far as I'm concerned, they can just STFU and do the dirty work themselves. Serves em right.

Wrong. Wrong wrong wrong wrong. You've been getting your information from 10 second snippets again.

Exxonmobil recorded a record profit for the year, but they also reported record SALES. Most of that profit was in oil exploration and production, not refining which is a different part of the company. XOM's profit margin for the year was right around 10%. Their 4th quarter profit was down 33%.
They earned just over $40 billion, but had sales of $464 billion. We're talking about a company that has a market cap of around $400 billion which is down about 20% for the year.
Lots of companies have much higher profit margins than that, lots and lots of them. Microsoft's net profit was 27.8% during that same period.

Exxonmobil is just so large that they have enormous sales numbers, which transfers into large profits even if the profit margin isn't huge.

When you said "OIL COMPANIES" you used the plural form. Please give me an example of an oil company that reported record profit for the year besides XOM. JUST ONE! I study this industry allot. I have for nearly three decades. Evidently you don't.
Valero, North America's largest refining company reported a net profit of NEGATIVE .96% last quarter and is shutting down two refineries.
Tesoro, another independent oil refining company reported a new profit of .46% last quarter and has shut down one of it's seven refineries.
BP reported a net profit of 7.62%, again most of that was from oil, not refining.
Shell's profit was down 28% for the quarter and it's refining operation lost money.
Flying J, an independent refiner, pipeline, and retailer filed bankruptcy last quarter.

Things are tough for the refining business right now and are going to get tougher. They are closing plants, laying off workers, and struggling to be stay afloat and you think they should hand over whatever profit they made LAST YEAR to workers who are already making extremely good money for what they do?
Good thing you don't run a corporation.

BTW, from what I've heard the offer on the table is 3 to 3 1/3% raises per year for the next three years, and the unions are saying no way. They want lots more.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Jim Richards

sammy was talking about his independent refinery, not those belonging to big oil.

BTW, Exxon Mobil just announced record profits on reduced earnings. Earnings down 33%, but profit was $45.2B. I'd sure love to have a tiny slice of that.

Buy the stock. It's listed under XOM. That's all you have to do. be careful though, they will probably not make very much profit this year, and maybe not next year either.
The company belongs to it's shareholders. Buy the stock and you can dance around in celebration of your 10% return on investment.
Or, you could but apple and get 15%, or buy Microsoft shares and earn almost almost 28%.

[Jim Richards]

Nah, that's too hard. I need to be work as an industry lobbyist. Better return on investment?

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Jim Richards

maybe

Wouldn't the strike lead to a bump in gas prices that opens up an opportunity for the oil companies to ramp up their refineries and drive you indies out of business?

daepp?

Not really. Valero is non-union in So Cal so they would keep running and make more money.
Tesoro's contract is good until April so if BP closes down in the next few weeks, Tesoro would see increased profits until April. If Tesoro's employees go on strike they will try to keep it running with salaried personnel. That's dangerous trying to run a refinery with 1/3 of the manpower it normally takes. Really dangerous.
Alon is another indy in So Cal but both of it's refineries are already shut down temporarily due to low margins.
If the bigger companies wanted to drive the independents out of business they'd be ramping up current production as much as possible to drive the price down even lower but they are cutting back just like everyone else. They don't like losing money on refining either.

Unfortunately in reality everyone loses if they go on strike.
Joe Public pays more money for gas and diesel.
The shareholders of the companies don't earn as much on their investment.
The oil workers lose too, because it will take them many years to recoup the money they lose from being on strike, and if they get more money there will be additional layoffs so some of them will be out of work. In case they haven't noticed, not very many companies are hiring right now.
No one wins if they strike, no one.

[TerryH]

Where do I apply? Just call me scabbie.