Marathon's Detroit refinery workers aim to work out contract without strike, union says

Feb 16 (Reuters) - Teamsters, one of America's biggest unions, said on Friday it wants to negotiate a new contract with Marathon Petroleum for its members at the Detroit refinery without having to go on a strike.

There are 270-280 Teamsters working at the refinery in a variety of roles, according to the union, of which 273 workers voted to authorize a strike at the Detroit refinery on Thursday, with their most recent contract having expired last month.

"We don't have a date set for a strike, nor do we have a timeline if it comes to that. Our goal is to settle the contract in bargaining without having to go on strike," the Teamsters spokesperson said.

The refinery has a crude oil refining capacity of 140,000 barrels per day and processes sweet and heavy sour crude oils into products such as gasoline and distillates.

(Reporting by Seher Dareen in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)