CONVENT – Motiva Refinery employees recently voted 165-91 to be represented by the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy International Union.

PACE will represent 284 operations, instrument and electrical, and laboratory workers at the plant.

PACE Region Six Vice-President Lewis Peacock said, “Workers approached PACE about forming a union. The company had deleted the head operator position, and the workers were upset over that.”

PACE’s Shell Alliance negotiates with Shell and Shell Motiva over wages, benefits and working conditions.

PACE Administrative Vice-President Jim Pannell commented, “The next step is for the union to give notice to Shell Motiva and request that negotiations begin. Shell Motiva did not dispute the election results.”

The Convent refinery was formerly a Texaco plant. When Texaco, Shell Oil Co. and Saudia Aramco formed a joint partnership to own the facility, it became Shell Motiva. The new company put the Shell Norco facility together with the Motiva refinery to form the Louisiana Refining Complex, and the same management team operated both refineries. The Norco refinery was represented by PACE and the Motiva refinery was non-union.

PACE represents more than 320,000 workers in the oil, chemical, pulp and paper, pharmaceutical, atomic, kaolin, auto parts, and corn milling industries.