The United Steelworkers Union (USW), the largest industrial labor union in North America, is planning to hammer out new deals  with U.S. oil companies that would increase the union's share of the booming U.S. shale market.

The USW was established May 22, 1942, in Cleveland, Ohio, by a convention of representatives from the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers and the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, whose members came together after years of inter-union tension to create a new steelworkers organization.  

The USW currently claims 860,294 members and represents metal, chemical, class, rubber, transportation, utilities, container, pharmaceutical, and health care industries, among others. Some refiners whose employees the USW represents include Exxon Mobil, Chevron Corp, Marathon Petroleum Corp., and Tesoro Corp. 

Refiners have seen earnings boom from a massive domestic oil surge, driven in large measure by innovative extraction methods like hydraulic fracturing (also known as hydro-fracking) and horizontal drilling. According to Bloomberg:

"The surge in production lowered U.S. oil prices by 14 percent and helped bring down the international benchmark North Sea Brent crude 16 percent in the third quarter.”

International Vice President of United Steel Workers Gary Beevers explains that the union wants a cut.

“I’m expecting the most difficult negotiations that I’ve seen in the three terms as vice president of the oil sector,” Beevers said. “We have an industry that has very, very good profits telling us we don’t deserve a good piece of the pie, and we disagree.”

The USW is demanding significant wage increases, and it looks like it is preparing to go to the mat for them: For the first time in over two decades, the union has set aside funds to prepare for a strike, which could halt as much as 63 percent of U.S. oil production according to Bloomberg, potentially causing widespread economic disruption.

A spokesman from Exxon in Arlington, VA has met with local union leaders to address the contracts upcoming expiration, gathering information, solving problems, and discussing future opportunities. 

The last agreement between USW and Shell took over a month to resolve.