Ricky Brooks, president of USW Local 13-2001 in Baytown, Texas, said Exxon's membership in the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, raises safety concerns for its members. He claimed that ALEC, which drafts legislation that states and municipalities can adopt, seeks to water down workers rights and health and safety rules, as well as to roll back contracts and arbitration awards.
"We see their impact in how our company is unilaterally implementing complex and confusing safety changes in Baytown," where Exxon operates a refinery, said Brooks, who works at the facility. "For decades, these safety practices have been mutually agreed upon to ensure workers' health and safety."
"Shareholders should be concerned that core health and safety procedures seem to be weakened by our company," he said.
Brooks said the lobbying report is necessary because publicly available government data is difficult to find and Exxon had failed to hold promised tutorials on the subject.
In response, Jeff Woodbury, Exxon's vice president of investor relations, said the Baytown refinery is one of the safest in the company's circuit and around the world.
However, another shareholder from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, complained that the company's system for reporting safety issues "penalizes and punishes and disciplines" employees who report incidents or injuries. He said the company's safety performance record likely does not accurately reflect the true number of workplace accidents because the current policy discourages workers from speaking up.
"Your experience is very different than the philosophy of that system and how we've implemented it around the world," Woodbury said.
Exxon did not immediately return an email seeking additional comment.
