More than 500 workers have gone on strike at a Chevron refinery in the San Francisco Bay Area after calling for a salary raise as inflation levels continue to soar across the country. Employees at the energy company also cited concerns over safety and long working hours. The strike on March 21 came after the company and members of the United Steelworkers Union (USW) Local 5 failed to reach a contract agreement when workers voted down Chevron’s most recent contract offer. The company then declined to return to the bargaining table, the United Steelworkers union said, prompting workers to give notice of their intent to begin an unfair labor practice strike at the refinery in the city of Richmond on March 21 at 12:01 a.m. A previous contract between Chevron and USW Local 5 expired on Feb. 1, and since then, members of the union have been working on a rolling 24-hour extension. Chevron said in a statement …