Strike imminent at big Chevron northern California refinery (NYSE:CVX)
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More than 500 workers at Chevron’s (NYSE:CVX) Richmond, Calif., refinery have told the company they will go on strike at midnight tonight, Associated Press reports, after negotiations failed to reach agreement on a new labor contract.
Chevron reportedly has begun turning over some operations to replacement workers at the 245K bbl/day refinery near San Francisco.
If the strike shuts down the refinery, it could impact gasoline supplies in California, which has some of the highest fuel prices in the U.S. with unleaded regular gasoline on Sunday selling for $5.847/gal and diesel for $6.258/gal, according to AAA.
The United Steelworkers union and U.S. refiners reached a national agreement last month that provides a 12% pay raise over four years to the union’s ~30K members at oil and chemical companies, but each local union separately negotiates a contract covering plant-specific issues, and Richmond workers have twice voted down Chevron’s offer.
Pointing to the stock’s strong YTD performance, J.P. Morgan recently downgraded Chevron to a Sell rating.
