John Catsimatidis-Owned Oil Company Refuses to Sign Union Contract at Greenpoint Refinery
Teamsters Local 553 had represented just three drivers at the facility, but other United Metro Energy workers — in their second year striking — are also fighting for a contract.
This article was originally published on by THE CITY
United Metro Energy, the Brooklyn-based oil company owned by radio host and former GOP mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis, declined to sign a longstanding, industry-wide collective bargaining agreement that expired last Friday, Dec. 16.
The contract had represented only three truck drivers, who haul fuel from the Greenpoint refinery, as members of Teamsters Local 553 for decades. But additional United Metro workers, including about two dozen technicians and mechanics, have been on strike for union recognition since April 2021.
In an interview with THE CITY on Thursday, Catsimatidis said — as United Metro executives have in recent months — that the company was never bound by the agreement, a matter Local 553 is disputing with the federal National Labor Relations Board.