Members of the United Steelworkers union rallied outside Marathon Petroleum’s corporate headquarters in downtown Findlay on Tuesday.

The crowd of union members rallied holding signs that read ‘Oil Workers Are Essential – Fair Contract Now’ and ‘Hey Marathon: Essential Workers Deserve Fair Contracts’.

The United Steelworkers union (USW) announced on February 1st that it rejected Marathon Petroleum’s most recent proposal for a pattern settlement on wages, benefits and working conditions for approximately 30,000 USW members in the oil and petrochemical industry.

The union then offered rolling 24-hour extensions of the current labor agreements.

The USW had been in talks with Marathon, which represents the industry as its lead negotiator, since January 13th. The current national agreement expired at midnight on February 1st.

“USW members were on the front lines of the pandemic, ensuring that our nation could meet its energy needs while company executives were safely tucked away, working from home,” said USW International President Tom Conway.

“Management needs to finally come to the table ready to negotiate a deal that reflects our members’ hard work, commitment and sacrifice.”

Marathon, in a statement on Tuesday, said it hopes the union will reconsider its offer as employees continue to work under the mutually agreed upon contract extension.

Marathon Petroleum issued the following statement after we reached out to them for comment about the USW’s Tuesday rally in Findlay.

“On January 31, we presented the United Steelworkers with a comprehensive final settlement offer that includes substantial wage increases in each year of a proposed three-year agreement, and maintains other economic and non-economic provisions of the previous pattern labor agreement, including those related to employee benefits, health and safety, and job security. The terms outlined in our final settlement offer are in addition to economic, health and welfare, and safety commitments that are provided to our employees under local agreements at our eight facilities subject to the United Steelworkers pattern agreement. We hope the union will reconsider our offer as our employees continue to work under the mutually agreed upon contract extension.”