ExxonMobil made $2.7 billion in just the first three months of 2021. Rather than negotiate a fair contract with the women and men who helped make those profits, the company chose on May 1 to lockout 650 families represented by USW Local 13-243 in Beaumont, Texas.
Our skilled and experienced union members worked through hurricanes, floods and freezes to keep the refinery and blending and packaging plant operating. Now, management has thrown essential workers out on the street.
But this is not just an attack on safety and security for oil workers. It’s an assault on living standards across our community. ExxonMobil’s lockout means that oilworkers are losing millions and millions of dollars in wages, money which is spent at local businesses, donated to charity and paid back in taxes.
When ExxonMobil deprives us of our hard-earned wages, all of our community-based businesses feel the impact. Local shops will ring up fewer sales. The restaurants where our families celebrate birthdays and anniversaries will see empty tables. Reduced tax payments will mean that public services and schools will see holes in their budgets.
It’s time for ExxonMobil to do the right thing by ending the lockout and negotiating a fair contract which puts our community back to work. For more information call 409-842-3952.