US labor board judge rules Exxon’s Texas refinery union lockout was legal

A U.S. National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge has ruled Exxon Mobil’s 10-month-long lockout of some 600 union workers at a Texas oil refinery during a contract dispute was legal. The judge sided with Exxon in his decision on Nov. 21, finding the 2021 and 2022 lockout was to pressure the United Steelworkers union workers toward a deal, not to oust the union from the 369,024 barrel-per-day (bpd) Beaumont, Texas, refinery complex. The USW had faced a decertification campaign and filed an unfair labor practice complaint during the lockout, alleging an improper effort to break the plant’s union.Read More