(Reuters) -About half of the workforce at Marathon Petroleum’s Detroit refinery will begin striking on Wednesday, following months of unsuccessful negotiations over pay and safety concerns, the Teamsters union said.
The union has been negotiating with Marathon, the country’s largest refiner by volume, for the past nine months, demanding better pay and improved work schedules.
Marathon said it does not expect the strike to impact operations at the facility.
“We are fully prepared and have implemented plans to continue safely operating the facility,” the company said in a statement.
Marathon’s Detroit refinery has a crude oil refining capacity of 140,000 barrels per day, processing sweet and heavy sour crude oils into products such as gasoline and distillates.
It employs about 273 Teamsters members, 95% of whom authorised the strike, the union said.
The refinery has about 525 employees, including both union and non-union workers.
(Reporting by Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
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