PETROLIA — There are no signs that the month-old lockout at Indspec Chemical Corp. will end anytime soon.

Two weeks after the company’s 175 full-time union workers voted down a revised offer, no new talks have been scheduled.

“We’re going to continue to bargain as soon as we hear back from the other side,” Ron Bowser, president of United Steelworkers of America, Local 6346-25, said Friday.

Indspec, a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp., locked out workers after the union rejected demands for contract changes.

Employees have been picketing outside the chemical plant since April 5, when their three-year contract expired. Union officials said they are trying to fight back concessions sought by the company.

Indspec previously rebuffed a union proposal that sought to keep workers on the job under the terms of the former contract during negotiations for a new pact.

Negotiators for both sides met April 16 for the first time since the lockout. A mediator participated in the talks to assist in the collective bargaining process.

Eric Moses, a spokesman for Indspec, said some progress was made at the table.

“During our last discussion,” he said Friday, “we reached a tentative agreement with the negotiating committee, but unfortunately it was voted down by the union membership on April 21.”

The company during the 14-hour bargaining session apparently came off its earlier stated “last, best and final offer” and made a counterproposal concerning two disputed issues — language covering holidays and job bidding.

Other key issues, including health insurance and work force restructuring, were unresolved.

Bowser said union negotiators, making no recommendation, took the company’s revised offer back to the rank-and-file.

Workers rejected the proposal. Union officials declined to say how the membership received the proposal and results of the vote were not released.

Despite giving the company’s latest offer a thumbs down, workers have shown no sign of frustration over the labor-management impasse, Bower said.

“I think they’re waiting to see how this transpires” he said. “I’m sure they’d like to see things get resolved as quickly as possible, but they understand the process.”

The company, too, seemed undeterred by the latest setback, Moses said.

“It is our hope that we are able to reach a fair contract which allows Indspec to respond to aggressive import competition and return the business to profitability,” he said.

“We believe that changes in various work and pay practices, that have been a part of our negotiations, are critical to the long-term viability of the business.”

Bowser said he understands the company’s position, to a point.

“We want the business to remain profitable,” he said, “but it depends on who defines ‘profitable.’”

Meanwhile, neither side would speculate on how long the dispute could last. The plant’s only previous work stoppage in 1976, a strike by employees, lasted eight months.

“We’re waiting for dates from the company so we can resume bargaining,” said James Woodward, a staff representative with USW District 10 and a member of the union’s negotiating team.

“Indspec Chemical Corp. has negotiated and is negotiating in good faith to try and reach a new contract,” Moses said. “We are communicating with the USW union negotiating committee to schedule the next round of talks.”