Union, Shell to resume talks in U.S. refinery strike on March 4

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Negotiations to settle the largest U.S. refinery strike are set to resume on March 4, the union and lead oil company negotiator said on Friday, the 27th day of the work stoppage. Talks between Shell Oil Co, the U.S. arm of Royal Dutch Shell Plc and the United Steelworkers union (USW) broke off on Feb. 20 after refinery owners balked at a settlement. The union then ordered a strike by workers at three Motiva Enterprises [MOTIV.UL] refineries, including the nation's largest, all co-owned by Shell. A total of 6,550 workers are walking picket lines at 15 plants, including 12 refineries that account for one-fifth of U.S. domestic production capacity. "Industry needs to bargain a fair and safe contract or see the strike expand," the USW said on Friday. It was unclear whether the negotiators for both sides would meet face-to-face or communicate via a conference call or other means. "We can confirm that Shell and USW have agreed to speak next Wednesday as both parties continue efforts to reach a mutually satisfactory agreement," said Shell spokesman Ray Fisher. "No further details are available." The USW has said it is seeking to retain safety provisions from previous contracts and tighten fatigue standards for workers, as well as win back daily maintenance jobs now done by non-union contractors. Shell and other companies have said the strike came about because of the union's insistence on replacing the non-union contractors with USW members, which would impair management's flexibility in refinery staffing. Companies have called on temporary replacement workers to keep plants running at nearly normal levels. Only one refinery, Tesoro Corp's 166,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Martinez, California, plant was shut due in part to the strike. The Martinez refinery was due to undergo a multi-unit overhaul closing down half its production prior to the strike. Tesoro decided to shut the entire refinery but has said it would resume production once the overhaul is completed. (Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by G Crosse and Ken Wills)