LIMA — Labor relations at the Lima refinery are shifting under new ownership: The United Steelworkers (USW) Local 624 has ratified a four-year contract extension with Cenovus Energy, avoiding lengthy negotiations that defined the last bargaining period.
But the Lima building trades, who still perform daily maintenance and construction at the refinery, are wondering whether the company will hire them for future turnaround projects after Cenovus hired mostly out-of-state contractors for its shutdown last fall.
“It was a real shot in the arm economically,” said Mike Knisley, secretary and treasurer for the Ohio State Building and Construction Trades Council. “A lot of families suffered from this.”
Knisley, a former pipefitter union president who lives downwind of the Lima refinery, told The Lima News in January that his conversations with Cenovus last spring did not give him confidence that the company will take a different approach for its next shutdown in five years.
He points to the October fire at the refinery as an example of what can go wrong, and why the company should hire experienced contractors who are familiar with the plant.
But Knisley said he is still hopeful Cenovus will re-evaluate before the next shutdown. And the company is meeting regularly with the Lima building trades council to learn about apprenticeship programs and the value of hiring its members, according to Rick Perdue, president of the Lima Building and Construction Trades Council.
Uncertainty lingers after shutdown
The Lima refinery shuts down every five years, disabling entire units so specialized maintenance crews can inspect, clean and replace damaged or outdated equipment.
The work is temporary, bringing thousands of pipefitters, boilermakers, electricians and other skilled tradesmen into the refinery for weeks. The Lima Building and Construction Trades Council, which represents 16 unions and 2,500 skilled workers from Northwest Ohio, relies on the shutdowns for work.
So when Cenovus acquired the Lima refinery in 2021, the trade unions were dismayed that the company bid most of the project out to non-union and out-of-state contractors instead, although some building trades members were still contracted for maintenance work.
Cenovus stood by its decision despite pushback from the trades unions and local officials.
In March, a Cenovus spokesperson told The Lima News last March that “most of the qualified workers required are based outside the local area,” noting that “this has been true for Lima turnarounds whether workers are represented by building trade unions or not.”
Claudio Ingaramo, vice president for U.S. refining for Cenovus Energy, later told the Lima Rotary Club last spring that the refinery’s bidding process valued “safety first, then technical expertise and related experiences.” He added: “While cost plays a role in the decision process—in reality, safety and quality were the main drivers.”
Still, Knisley estimated that anywhere from 60% to 75% of workers contracted with the Lima building trades unions live within a 60-mile radius of the refinery, commuting from cities like Toledo, Dayton, Fort Wayne and Columbus.
“It still comes at a price because these turnarounds are so huge for the building trades, after you’ve been doing it for 70 to 100-plus years,” he said. “And it did create a level of uncertainty with the building trades like: What’s next? Are we going to be out totally?”
Shifting labor dynamics
For years, it was the full-time workers who clashed with refinery management during contract negotiations.
The USW went on strike at the refinery for four months in 2012 — an experience former union president Mike Edelbrock said he wanted to avoid in future contract talks.
More recently, Local 624 members opted for 24-hour rolling contract extensions that persisted for 17 months after their contract expired in April 2019, eventually winning concessions from previous owner Husky that allowed workers to trade day and night shifts.
Local 624 members avoided both of those scenarios last week when they ratified a four-year contract extension, which included signing bonuses, according to Local 624 President Joe Hale.
But the Lima building trades, which Knisley said had a good relationship with Husky before, found themselves at odds with Cenovus last year as the company was preparing for its fall turnaround project.
“They kept reiterating we don’t have the skilled people,” Knisley said. “We built and maintained this refinery. We have millions of man-hours. We’ve had numerous safety awards. … This notion that we’re not skilled and we don’t have the expertise to do this—I told the team at Cenovus, this is insulting.”
The Lima building trades are waiting to see what happens with the next big turnaround, Perdue said.
In the meantime, Perdue said the unions are meeting with Cenovus monthly to improve their relationship so when the next turnaround comes, what happened last time doesn’t happen again.
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