(Adds Shell letter, background, detail)
By Erwin Seba
HOUSTON, Feb 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. refinery strike widenedon its 20th day, with workers at the nation's largest refinerywalking off jobs and joining picket lines on Saturday as theUnited Steelworkers union (USW) pushes for a new contract thatimproves wages and safety.
Strikes are underway or have been called at 15 plants,including 12 refineries with a fifth of U.S. crude processingcapacity. The stoppages, which have forced companies to rely ontrained temporary workers to keep plants running close tonormal, are the largest in the refining sector since 1980.
Shortly after talks between union and oil companyrepresentatives ended on Friday night, the union notified MotivaEnterprises of a strike by its members at thecompany's 600,250 barrel per day (bpd) refinery in Port Arthur,Texas.
USW members are also scheduled to go on strike by 12 a.m.Sunday at Motiva's 235,000 bpd Convent, Louisiana and 238,000bpd Norco, Louisiana refineries and the Shell Oil Co chemicalplant in Norco, the union said.
"The industry's refusal to meaningfully address safetyissues through good faith bargaining gave us no other option butto expand our work stoppage," USW International President LeoGerard said in a statement.
As of Saturday, no new talks had been scheduled between thetwo sides.
Motiva was targeted for the strikes because it is a 50-50joint venture of Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Saudi Aramco. Shell's U.S. arm Shell Oil Co is the lead oilcompany negotiator in talks with the USW for a nationalagreement on safety, pay and benefits.
Shell and the USW were near an agreement for a new contracton Friday night, but other oil companies were unwilling toaccept the bargain, said sources familiar with the talks.
"As the lead company, Shell has the role to get the oilcompanies to come along," said one of the sources. "The (union)leadership group decided Shell needed to be put on the list oftargeted companies."
A Shell spokesman said the company was disappointed by thePort Arthur walkout and strike notices to the Louisiana plants.
In a letter Shell has sent to striking employees at its DeerPark, Texas, refinery and chemical plant, a copy of which wasseen by Reuters, the company said the key sticking point wasnon-union contractors who perform daily maintenance, which theUSW would like to see replaced with union workers.
The company said it needed flexibility.
"Hiring flexibility is a proven way to protect our coreShell workforce and the long-term economic viability of ourworkforce," the letter said. "This strategy has served us allwell, as we have not had to conduct any layoffs in decades."
The strike that began Feb. 1 was last expanded Feb. 6, whenworkers at BP Plc-operated refineries in Indiana and Ohiowere told to begin a work stoppage the following day.
Workers were already on strike at Shell's 327,000 bpdjoint-venture refinery in Deer Park since the strike began onFeb. 1.
MOTIVA ISSUES
The Motiva walkout may complicate operations at the PortArthur refinery, which has several units shut but did return itssecond largest crude distillation unit (CDU) to full productionon Friday night.
The 195,000 bpd CDU is one of three at the refinery that dothe initial refining of crude oil coming into the plant andprovide feedstock for all other production units.
The refinery's largest CDU, which has a rated capacity of325,000 bpd is running at about 200,000 bpd, the sources said,because a 60,000 bpd hydrocracking unit is shut due to amalfunction. The hydrocracker produces motor fuel, primarilydiesel, which has become a lucrative export for U.S. refiners.
Motiva also shut a 92,000 bpd gasoline-producing fluidiccatalytic cracking unit at the refinery in early January for anoverhaul. It is scheduled to restart in the first half of March.
Shell and the union had been meeting continuously sincetalks resumed on Wednesday following a week-long break for thecompany to reply to an information request and a counterproposalfrom the USW.
Union negotiators have rejected seven contract offer fromShell.
The USW's lead negotiator, International Vice President GaryBeevers, has told Reuters that safe staffing levels were a pointof contention in the talks.
The union also wants "no retrogression" language, whichpreserves agreements from previous contracts.
In addition to the BP plants, workers are striking at onesowned by Lyondell Basell, Marathon Petroleum,and Tesoro in California, Kentucky, Texas andWashington.
Only one refinery has shut down due to the strike -Tesoro's 166,000-bpd plant in Martinez, California, which waspreviously scheduled to undergo maintenance.
The USW wants a three-year pact that would cover 30,000workers at 63 U.S. refineries with two-thirds of domesticcapacity. (Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Terry Wade, Chizu Nomiyamaand Franklin Paul)
