HOUSTON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc and the United Steelworkers union (USW) will resume negotiationson Tuesday over a new labor contract for U.S. refinery workers,the company said on Monday as the walkouts stretched into theirninth day.
The first big refinery strike since 1980 started on Feb. 1after Shell walked away from the negotiating table, with bothsides disagreeing over the size of wage increases and how tomonitor worker safety tied to fatigue.
Over the weekend, walkouts widened to include BP Plc's Whiting, Indiana, refinery and its joint-venture refinerywith Husky Energy in Toledo, Ohio.
In total, strikes have been called at 11 plants, includingnine refineries that account for 13 percent of U.S. refiningcapacity. About 5,400 workers are now on the picket lines.
Companies have called on trained managers to keep theirplants running at nearly normal levels, except for Tesoro Corp, which opted to shut its Martinez, California, refineryas part of an already ongoing overhaul.
The USW began negotiations on Jan. 21 for about 30,000workers at 63 plants. They are seeking wage increases, a tighterpolicy to prevent worker fatigue, and reductions in non-unioncontractors working in refineries.
On Monday, wholesale gasoline and diesel prices aroundChicago, near Whiting, rose slightly relative to futuresbenchmarks on news of the wider strike. (Reporting By Erwin Seba and Terry Wade; Editing by AlanCrosby)