BEAUMONT, Texas — Representatives from ExxonMobil and United Steel Workers union members are set to meet in federal court Monday as the formerly locked out workers seek back pay.
The U.S. National Labor Relations Board asked a judge to order back-pay for the workers in October 2022. More than 600 employees were locked out of the Beaumont refinery from May 2021 until March 2022 following failed contract negotiations.
The union claims ExxonMobil was unfair in its labor practices and called the entire lockout “unlawful.”
If ExxonMobil is required to provide back-pay, it could cost the power giant millions.
On Monday, a hearing will be held in Houston with the National Labor Relation Board. While Monday’s hearing is not considered a lawsuit, it could lay the groundwork for one.
“What happens is, the way U.S. labor law is, they give a lot of power to the national labor relations board for handling union management issues,” Arthur Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University, said. "So they try to make the NLRB handle as many of these cases as they can."
The lockout began on May 1, 2021, after ExxonMobil failed to reach a deal with the United Steelworkers union.
During the almost 10-month long lockout, ExxonMobil USW officials met more then 50 times to discuss offers an many petitions circulated to remove the United Steel Workers union from representing the locked-out workers.
On Oct. 4, 2021, locked-out workers filed a petition to decertify the union. Afterward, union workers were asked to vote on whether to keep the union.
“Secret ballots” were sent out in the mail to USW workers on November 12, 2021 and they had until December 22, 2021 to return the ballots to the National Labor Relations Board.
ExxonMobil officials are encouraging union members to break from the USW and go back to work.
A vote to decertify the USW union was impounded in late January as members of the National Labor Relations Board looked into three separate claims of unfair labor practices.
Related: NLRB counts previously impounded votes, union workers voted to keep United Steelworkers Union
The NLRB impounded the decertification ballots on Dec. 29, 2021 and postponed the vote counting. Board members stated that they needed to look into allegations filed by both employees looking to decertify the union and the USW union against ExxonMobil.
Three months later the votes were counted and showed that 258 members voted in favor of being represented by the USW union and 229 voted against.
Information previously obtained by 12News through open records requests revealed that there were two charges filed by the union against Exxon. There was also one charge filed by the decertification group against the union.
All the allegations filed with the NLRB were centered around unfair labor practices.
The first complaint was filed against the USW on Sept. 30, 2021 by members of the decertification group. The complaint stated in part that union, "officers, agents and representatives have restrained and coerced employees.”
In December of 2021, the union filed two charges against the power giant. Union officials claimed the company violated the National Labor Relations Act by promising to return employees to work if they decertified from the local union.
Union officials also claimed the company was not providing them with necessary information.
United Steelworkers union members voted to accepted one of ExxonMobil's offers in February 2022 effectively ending the lockout. In the offer presented on Feb. 11, ExxonMobil added the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to workers' calendars, updated the language to the union workmen’s committee, and separated job classifications for different jobs.
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