By Jessica Resnick-Ault
NEW YORK, Feb 2 (Reuters) - The last time U.S. oil workerswent on strike in support of a nationwide pact, Jimmy Carter waspresident and KC and the Sunshine Band flew high in theBillboard chart with "Please Don't Go."
As oil companies prepare to cope with strikes at nine U.S.refineries and chemical plants, accounting for about 10 percentof U.S. refining capacity, they can look to distant lessons fromthe three-month-long strike that started on Jan. 8, 1980.
Then, plants continued to operate despite widespread picketlines by union members fighting for improved pay and benefitssuch as dental coverage.
Much has changed in the industry over 35 years, but thecompanies are expected to use some of the same tactics as theircounterparts in 1980, including calling on managers to donoveralls and fill in for workers.
In 1980, the companies also relied upon retired workers andpeople from other plants to run the refineries where strikesoccurred, recalled Bob Landry, a retired refinery worker inBaton Rouge, Louisiana.
"Looking back now, we all have all our teeth when we retire.It was a good thing, you have to look at the long run," he said.
On Sunday, union workers took to picket lines after the United Steelworkers union (USW) said Royal Dutch Shell Plc, the lead industry negotiator, halted talks over payand conditions.
Shell activated a strike contingency plan at its sprawlingjoint venture refinery and chemical plant in Deer Park, Texas,to keep operating normally, and other companies, like TesoroCorp sprung into action at their own plants.
Refinery workers in 1980 were represented by the Oil,Chemical and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW).
Since then, the landscape has changed and unions have becomeless influential: many refineries have shutdown as oilproduction and processing trends in the U.S. have shifted.Others have expanded to become more efficient processors ofcrude. Free trade deals have loosened unions' grip.
After a refinery's union membership voted in favor of thestrike, 24-hour pickets were set up immediately, according toDonald Erlandson, who researched past strikes for a union localon the West Coast.
"Picket pay was $25 a week," he wrote. "A comprehensivepicket shift schedule was put together. The brothers at AlliedChemical assessed their dues an extra $20 a week to help supportthe effort."
At the end of the strike, the union won a 5 percent payraise nationally, plus an additional 52 cents for the first yearwith a 10.5 percent pay raise the second year. And they gottheir first dental plan.
There have been other local work stoppages since then, andcompanies also came to the brink of strike as recently as 2012.
Union workers at Tesoro Corp voted to allow a strike in thewake of difficult negotiations at four of its plants in May2012.
At the time, Tesoro CEO Greg Goff said its 166,000 barrelper day San Francisco Bay refinery in Martinez, California,would temporarily stop production but continue as a refinedproducts terminal while replacement workers were trained.
The refinery union locals ultimately reached agreements withthe company, so the plans weren't tested.
Canadian firm Husky Energy, where employees went onstrike, did replace hourly workers with managers and otherreplacements. That plant also eventually reached an agreementwith workers, and they returned.
This time, Tesoro said it would continue operating itsrefineries through the strike, with the exception of itsMartinez plant, which it said it would shut because maintenancework is currently underway. (Reporting By Jessica Resnick-Ault; editing by StuartGrudgings)
