About 15 BP-Husky Toledo Refinery workers were picketing Sunday afternoon — down from about 100 at Saturday’s midnight kickoff — in front of the plant in Oregon as the first nationwide strike at U.S. oil refineries since 1980 spread to the Midwest.

A picket sign depicted an injured worker being carried out of a burning refinery, with the slogan, “STILL OUT OF CONTROL.”

The placard said the strike was about safety for workers and the public. The union has said the strike is not about salaries at the plant where many are paid about $30 an hour.

One picketer from another union joined in sympathy.

“If all the unions in Toledo stuck together I know we could accomplish things,” said John Clemons, an officer with the American Maritime Officers union in Toledo.

Pickets also started in northwest Indiana at BP Whiting Refinery, the other plant where the international Steelworkers union took the strike at midnight Saturday.

The nationwide walkout began Feb. 1, taking out workers at nine other refineries from California to Kentucky.

Locally, the union’s three-year contract ended Feb. 1.

The local union and company had met almost daily since negotiations started in Oregon on Jan. 5, said Jonathan Cathers, chairman of the BP group for United Steelworkers Local 1-346.

Nationwide, the union is upset about the use of contractors and fatigue management, among other issues.

But locally, a management-rights proposal is the biggest issue, Mr. Cathers said.

The union fears, he said, that the proposal would allow cutting jobs without further union negotiations and that that could impact safety for workers and the communities surrounding the plant.

No date has been set to resume negotiations locally, he said, adding that the union is ready to talk and that the union and company had made “some progress” before the international union expanded the strike to the region. Local union members did not have a vote on that.

First Published February 9, 2015, 5:00 a.m.