BP to meet union leaders next week for Whiting refinery negotiations

DENVER, May 13 (Reuters) - BP ​will meet ⁠with union leaders on ​Monday to resume contract negotiations for workers at its Whiting, ​Indiana, ‌oil refinery, the company and United Steelworkers union ⁠said on Wednesday.

"We look forward ⁠to returning to the ​negotiating table to work toward an agreement that preserves strong jobs by improving refinery performance, strengthening safety, ​and ‌keeping the site competitive in a range of economic conditions over the long term. We have negotiated in good faith from the ​start and will keep doing so," BP said ‌in a statement. Some 800 workers at the 440,000-barrel-per-day refinery, the largest in ‌the U.S. Midwest, have been locked out since March 19 after months of negotiations failed to ​produce a new labor contract.

"We’re pleased British Petroleum responded to ‌our request to resume negotiating," said Eric Schultz, president of United Steelworkers Local 7-1, in a statement. "We ⁠will again ⁠ask them to lift their ‌lockout and to move away from their demands to cut more ​than ​100 local jobs, make sweeping ‌pay cuts and that we give up our bargaining and seniority rights." (Writing by Liz Hampton in Denver; Editing by Rod Nickel)

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