Feb 13 (Reuters) - The United Steelworkers union (USW) andrefinery owners were set to resume contract negotiations nextweek as the largest U.S. refinery strike since 1980 reached its13th day on Friday.
About 5,400 workers at 11 plants, including nine refineriesaccounting for 13 percent of U.S. production capacity, were onstrike with no signs of an immediate end.
"We're still fulfilling the information request from the USWand looking forward to resuming negotiations next week," saidRay Fisher, spokesman for Shell Oil Co, the U.S. arm of RoyalDutch Shell Plc , the lead company negotiator.
Talks are scheduled to resume on Wednesday.
A USW representative was not immediately available onFriday.
On Thursday night, the union said it was awaiting responsesto an information request to Shell last week as well as itscounterproposal. No details about the counterproposal have beenreleased.
The information request, which Shell has called extensive,focuses on the use of non-union contract workers to performday-to-day maintenance in refineries.
Workers hired by the companies contracted to do regularrefinery maintenance are less qualified than union workers, theUSW claims.
Only one refinery, Tesoro Corp's 166,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) plant in Martinez, California, near San Francisco, hasbeen shut due to the strike. Tesoro shut the refinery on Feb. 6,because one-half of the plant's production was already out due aplanned multiunit overhaul.
The company said on the Thursday the Martinez plant willremain shut until the strike ends.
Since the talks started on Jan. 21, sticking points haveincluded the use of nonunion contractors and how to monitorworker fatigue. Wage increases and health benefits are also onthe table.
The USW is seeking a three-year, industrywide pact thatwould cover 30,000 workers at 63 U.S. refineries that togetheraccount for two-thirds of domestic capacity.
Over the weekend, walkouts widened to include BP Plc's Whiting, Indiana, refinery and its joint-venturerefinery with Husky Energy in Toledo, Ohio.
Companies have called on trained temporary replacementworkers to keep their plants running at nearly normal levels.
Refineries affected by the strike have reported malfunctionssince the walkout began on Feb. 1.
A 70,000-bpd gasoline-producing fluid catalytic crackingunit was shut earlier this week at Shell's 327,000-bpd refineryin the Houston suburb of Deer Park, Texas. (Reporting by Erwin Seba in Houston; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
BP (BP.)
