BP revised its Whiting oil refinery offer after unions rejected the proposal

BP issued a revised offer of a contract to its union?workers in its Whiting, Indiana oil refinery. This was after members of the United Steelworkers overwhelmingly refused what the 'company' had described as its "last, best and final" -proposal.

The USW announced on Thursday that, "an unprecedented 94% union members voted and 98.3% voted to reject BP's proposal."

BP said that the offer would expire after 10 calendar days.

This revised offer does not penalize the Union or its members who rejected the original offer. In an employee bulletin issued after the vote, BP stated that it was simply a'reflection' of certain incentives being conditional on reaching an agreement by March 12th 2026.

The revised proposal would not retroactively apply the first-year wage increase to February 1, 2026. Instead, it would take effect at the beginning of the first full pay period following ratification.

BP reduced a lump-sum payment of $7,500 to $2,500. This brings the total lump-sum to a range between $2,500 and $10,000.

The revised offer will not expire, the company stated.

USW said that, after two months of negotiation, BP's proposal included changes to the contract's basic terms, including limiting unions' ability to strike - and stripping them of their bargaining rights - base wage reductions across classifications, the elimination -and outsourcing of '100 union jobs', ending seniority protections if they are laid off, etc.

United Steelworkers Local 7-1 - which represents around 800 workers in the U.S. Midwest - said that its bargaining committee had reported the results of the vote to BP 'and would give them an opportunity to make a more serious proposal.

Since the expiration of their contract on January 31, the union is working under a rolling extension of 24 hours to their previous agreement. (Reporting by Anushree Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Rod Nickel)

(source: Reuters)