Negotiations between the United Steelworkers union and Marathon Petroleum continued late into Saturday as the clock approached the expiration of a national four-year agreement covering thousands of oil industry employees, the union reported. The talks were ongoing only hours before a potential strike deadline that could affect multiple refineries and chemical plants across the United States.
Late on Saturday afternoon, the union rejected a proposal tabled by Marathon, the company leading bargaining on behalf of 26 refiners and chemical firms that include some of the nation's largest operators. Sources familiar with the discussions said the offer would have delivered a total wage increase of 13% over the life of the four-year contract.
A Marathon spokesperson, Jamal Kheiry, said: "MPC continues to meet with representatives from the USW. We are committed to bargaining in good faith and to working toward a mutually satisfactory agreement." A USW spokesperson declined to comment on the talks immediately.
Under the terms described by sources, the pay adjustments in Marathon's package were structured as 3% in each of the first two years and 3.5% in each of the final two years, adding up to the 13% total. Negotiators, however, remain far apart on several other substantive matters.
According to people familiar with the negotiations, the union's priorities include cost-of-living increases for roughly 30,000 oil industry workers the USW represents, control over rising healthcare costs, and binding standards for how artificial intelligence is deployed in refinery and chemical plant operations. The USW has also pushed for stricter safety standards, a demand that sources said Marathon treats as unlikely to move forward.
One source who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly characterized Marathon's stance on economics and safety bluntly: "Marathon as a company thinks our industry is overpaid. They’re not coming up much on economics. And to be honest, they’re not really addressing anything else in our proposal besides AI. And they’re not addressing it in a good way."
The existing national pattern agreement is due to expire at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday. That expiration does not automatically trigger walkouts. In prior negotiations, the USW has chosen to grant rolling 24-hour extensions to the national contract while talks continued past the stated expiration. Any strike action would be limited to sites where the union explicitly authorizes a walkout.
The last major nationwide action involving the USW in the oil sector took place in 2015, when the union initially called out workers at 11 refineries across the country. At that time roughly 5,200 USW members were involved and the affected refineries continued operating by using temporary replacement workers.
The current bargaining process is for a national pattern agreement that sets base wages for hourly union employees, determines national provisions on healthcare and safety, and establishes other industry-wide terms. Inside refinery operators, as noted in the talks, typically earn about $50 per hour once their probationary periods are completed. That national framework is combined with site-specific agreements to form the full contract governing conditions at each plant.
Separately, the parties reported progress on local issues at one major site. Workers and Marathon reached a settlement on local matters on Friday at Marathon's largest refinery, the 631,000 barrel-per-day Galveston Bay Refinery. The outcome at that site resolved plant-level disputes but left the broader national concerns unresolved as the deadline loomed.
What happens next
Negotiators remained at the table after the national contract formally expired, leaving open the possibility of a short extension or further bargaining. Any movement will hinge on whether the union and Marathon can narrow differences on wages, cost-of-living protections, healthcare, AI governance, and safety standards.