PETROLIA — Union and company negotiators are to return to the bargaining table Tuesday morning in hopes of ending a two-and-a-half month lockout at the Indspec chemical plant.

Neither side, however, was willing to predict if the latest round of talks could help end the impasse.

“I'm hoping there's movement and things get resolved but we won't know that until we meet,” Ron Bowser, president of United Steelworkers of America, Local 6346-25, said today.

Bowser said negotiators for the union, which represents 175 full-time workers, presented their latest offer to Indspec counterparts during a conference call about two weeks ago.

The union is expected to learn the company's response to that proposal at Tuesday's session, to be held at the Days Inn in Butler Township.