Two days before contract talks were scheduled to resume between Royal Dutch Shell Plc and the United Steelworkers’ oil union, the company announced plans to run its second-largest U.S. refinery without union labor. Shell will have trained and deployed enough “relief workers” by mid-summer to keep the 327,000-barrel-a-day Deer Park refinery in Texas fully staffed, The Hague, Netherlands-based company said late Monday on its website. Lee Medley, president of the USW local covering workers that went on strike at Deer Park Feb. 1, described Shell’s statement on Tuesday as a “scare tactic” designed to get USW members to return to work. The announcement comes amid national strike action that’s widened to 12 refineries accounting for almost 20 percent of the capacity in the U.S.. Shell is leading the negotiations with the 30,000-strong United Steelworkers on behalf of companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. Shell said […]