Exxon Mobil Corp ( XOM.N ) has rejected a contract offer from the United Steelworkers (USW) local chapter representing hourly workers at the company’s Beaumont, Texas, refinery and renewed its offer of a six-year contract, a union official said on Wednesday. Exxon has been campaigning for a longer agreement with the Beaumont workforce, offering first a five-year agreement and then a six-year pact. Sources have told Reuters Exxon wants a longer pact to avoid work stoppages if it expands the 344,600-barrel-per-day-capacity Beaumont refinery into the nation’s largest, possibly reaching 850,000 bpd by the end of the decade. On March 17, USW local 13-243 had offered the current four-year national refinery and chemical plant workers contract plus the next contract to be negotiated in 2019 without a work stoppage. The agreement would cover at least seven years. Exxon put the six-year proposal on the negotiating table again […]