Image Credit: Amazon Watch/Arthur Koch

San Francisco, May 24 (RHC)-- In the U.S. state of California, the United Steelworkers union has filed charges against Chevron with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging the oil giant illegally surveilled and coerced employees at Chevron’s Richmond refinery while refusing to bargain in good faith with workers who’ve been on strike since March 21st.  

Earlier, Chevron reported it made $6.3 billion in profit during the first quarter of the year.

About 150 people rallied outside Chevron’s San Francisco Bay Area refinery. Joining them was human rights and environmental lawyer Steven Donziger, who was released from nearly 1,000 days of house arrest last month as part of a years-long legal ordeal that began after he successfully sued Chevron on behalf of Ecuadorian Amazonian Indigenous communities.

Steven Donziger told reporters: “You can’t tell me, with these record-breaking profits that we see right now with Chevron and the whole fossil fuel sector, they can’t pay a fair wage to the workers who are responsible for keeping this industrial site as safe as possible.  It’s all connected, isn’t it?  You know, screwing over the Indigenous people of Ecuador, screwing over their own workers, and doing things in this community that are extremely disrespectful to every citizen.”