A Letter from Leon

As most of you are aware, there is a very serious situation pertaining to contract negotiations for our brothers and sisters at the Ponca City Refinery. Our fellow union members in Ponca City have been working in a "rolling 24" situation since March 31st of this year when their current contract was due to expire. Although meetings do continue on a sporadic basis, with the assistance of a Federal Mediator, there does not seem to be any progress being made between the company and union negotiators.

There are two very serious issues all union members should be concerned with on the table in Ponca City.

1. Fatigue Policy-the company is insisting on language giving them the right to implement a fatigue policy during the contract without the union having the right to strike. This issue was on the table at all ConocoPhillips sites, which were on date for February 1st. The company had removed this issue from the table when it appeared it would be handled as a NOBP item. This failed to happen so it has popped up at Ponca. The company has known since the BP Amaco explosion in Texas City, that fatigue would someday be an issue (fatigue on the part of the operators due to working an extended period of time was cited by the Baker Panel as a cause of the explosion). ConocoPhillips has had, since 2005, time to write their fatigue policy and be ready for negotiations. Their failure to do so should not lead to midterm implementation.

2. Direct Hire for Maintenance-I don't know the details of the proposal for this issue. What I do know is that any language changed on how you hire to staff positions should be looked at very carefully. Any changes in this area could lead to changes on language affecting how employees would move in the event of cutbacks or layoffs. That makes this a VERY SERIOUS issue. While our negotiations here in Lake Charles are going well at this early date the company does have proposals much like this on their list here.

Due to this serious situation, we will be informing the company next week to be prepared to increase our dues. As you should remember, after the contract negotiations in 2002, the sites belonging to the CONOCOPHILLIPS NATION WIDE COUNCIL voted to have a fifty-dollar strike assessment to support any of our groups involved in a work stoppage. We invoked this once for a site on strike against Penrico (a ConocoPhillips joint venture) following the 2006 contract extensions.

While we certainly hope the company will begin meaningful negotiations with the group in Ponca City, and any strike by our brothers and sisters can be avoided, we wanted to take this opportunity to keep you informed of the steps we are taking should our members have to strike.

As you should know, what happens at one site often moves to the others. I encourage all of you to stand strong in support of Ponca as they are very likely fighting our fight.

Leon Royer