Exxon Mobil labor negotiators advised managers ahead of 2021 talks that they believed the company might have to lock out Texas refinery workers to achieve its aims of taking away job protections based on seniority, according to witnesses testifying at a U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) hearing.

An NLRB judge will decide whether the largest U.S. oil firm has to pay millions of dollars in back pay to about 650 workers locked out of their jobs for 10 months while talks continued. The judge is hearing testimony from company and United Steelworkers' officials this week.

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Negotiators were instructed they could offer pay increases only if the USW gave up some decades-long seniority and job-bidding terms at the Beaumont oil refinery, testified Phil Matherne, an operations manager at refinery who was part of the company's negotiating team in 2021.

"We were told we can do the wage increases but you have to get those core objectives," Matherne said in testimony during before Jeffrey Wedekind, a NLRB administrative law judge.

The company was suffering huge losses from its businesses as COVID-19 lockdowns sharply cut oil and motor fuels consumption. Exxon lost $22.4 billion in 2020 from operating losses and write downs.

An Exxon spokesperson this week called the hearing an attempt by the NLRB to overturn labor law and court precedent.

In May 2021, Exxon locked out 650 union workers in Beaumont after talks between the two sides stalled and workers authorized union officials to call a strike. The lockout ended in March 2022 after union members agreed to the company's terms.

During the lockout, union members rejected a bid to remove the USW as their representative at the 369,024 bbl/d refinery, motor oil and packaging plant. The USW has alleged the company used the lockout to convince workers to reject the USW.

The Beaumont refinery remained in operation using engineers, managers and supervisors from other Exxon plants and temporary workers hired locally.

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