United Steelworkers rally outside Marathon Petroleum headquarters in Findlay

FINDLAY, Ohio (WTVG) - Members of United Steelworkers and their allies gathered in front of Marathon Petroleum headquarters on Main Street in Findlay to protest for fair contracts on Tuesday afternoon. Protesters waved flags, signs, and chanted the slogan “What do want? Contracts! When do we want them? Now,” among others.

“It’s disgraceful we’re upset. We have people here from Washington state, California, Texas. We’re pretty upset,” says Joe Hale, a protester. “We worked through the pandemic, we worked hard. We out in some long hours, and we just want what we deserve and they don’t even want to sit down and discuss it.”

The protesters tell 13abc they have put their health and lives at risk all while watching the company get richer, while they reap the little reward. They are wanting their contracts to reflect their work, but Marathon feels they offered a fair deal.

The company said in a statement:

“The industry has changed quite a bit and we need a lot of security and safety nets for our members in the industry right now,” says Mike Smith, the Chair of Oil Bargaining for United Steelworkers.

“They have not taken into account that we have had, the last two years they have made record profits. They have been staying at home, working from home throughout this pandemic, while we have been going to work, getting sick, running their companies for them, making them billions and billions of dollars,” says Justin Donley, a protester. “It’s time for them to start paying back what they’ve been taking off of us.”

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