BEAUMONT, Texas — Locked-out ExxonMobil workers could be back at the refinery as early as Tuesday after United Steelworkers union members voted to accepted the power giants latest offer.
"The final tally on the vote was 214 to 133,” Bryan Gross, union representative, said. “The company's proposal, latest offer passed."
The almost 10-month long lockout at ExxonMobil's Beaumont refinery appears to be over after a decisive vote on Monday.
According to Gross, about 75 percent of the union’s membership voted on Exxon’s latest offer. Gross believes the power giant amended the offer just enough to appeal to a majority of the locked-out members.
“We secured MLK holiday in the contract,” Gross said. “That's an additional holiday for the members. There's some things in there that we still think is not up to what it should be as far as the industry."
Employees such as Andrew Golden who voted "yes" said personal reasons made accepting the recently amended contract easy.
"I have three children and a beautiful wife at home and I'm trying to feed them and take care of them,” Golden said. “It's kind of hard to do when you get used to basing your life off a certain wage and then you get pushed off it. So for me I feel like the right thing to do is to come through and go ahead and vote 'yes' on the contract."
Now, the question of when locked-out workers will be able to return to the refinery remains. ExxonMobil officials said they are pleased with the outcome of the vote and will give updates on when employees will return to work after they finalize plans with union officials.
"The ball is on ExxonMobil's court," Gross said.
Golden said that return cannot come soon enough.
“I miss a lot of the people I work with. I don't see these guys every day anymore and like I said the financial stability that I have for my family,”
ExxonMobil released statement saying in part, "We know it has been a long process and we believe this contract will provide long-term stability including job protections and wage progressions for employees."
The locked-out employees return to work will be governed by the Return to Work Agreement discussed between the power giant and union officials, according to ExxonMobil representatives. Meetings to bargain return to work terms have already taken place between the two companies.
As of Monday night, ExxonMobil has not received a RTW agreement from the union.
Monday's vote caps months of back-and-forth between the union and energy giant. Workers lined up outside of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Hall in Beaumont to vote before doors opened at 3:30 p.m.
A second vote happened at 5:30 p.m. The mood was distinctly different that during the last contract vote on October 19.
In the offer presented on Feb. 11, the 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.
Related: United Steelworkers union makes changes to proposal in hopes of ending lockout with ExxonMobil
Almost 600 union members have been locked out of the downtown Beaumont facility since May 1, 2021. For months, the locked-out employees have picketed, protested and gone without pay.
Union officials claim the fight for fairness and justice began long before the lockout started.
Union and Exxon officials have met more than 60 times to discuss offer proposals. In the union's latest proposal to the power giant, small changes were made to an already existing proposal.
Union officials hoped officials with Exxon would do the same on their end.
Union officials are still pursuing charges against the power giant with the National Labor Relations Board. They claim Exxon officials have been using serious unfair labor practices.
Many petitions have circulated to remove the United Steel Workers union from representing the locked-out workers. In early October of 2021, locked-out workers filed a petition to decertify the union.
A vote to decertify the USW union was impounded in late January as members of the NLRB looked into three separate claims of unfair labor practices. 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.
A count of the decertification votes cannot be conducted until all of the charges are thoroughly investigated. In October, Gross told 12News he did not believe the charges filed should affect any potential contract negotiations.
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