Starting on Feb. 1, thousands of union refinery workers across the country walked away from their jobs, and shockwaves from that strike have registered in Nipomo.
Since Jan. 28, a rotating group of members of the Grover Beach-based United Steelworkers (USW) Local 534 chapter have been picketing at the gates of the Phillips 66 Santa Maria Refinery in Nipomo.
Juan Zepeda, the financial secretary/treasurer of the local USW chapter and a sulfur plant operator at the Santa Maria Refinery, told the Sun that his chapter represents 69 of the approximately 135 workers at the refinery. He said the strikes nationwide and the local picketing aren’t about wages, but worker safety.
“We are just picketing and not on strike yet, but it’s important for us to express ourselves and show solidarity with the USW,” Zepeda said. “The picketing shows [Phillips 66] that they haven’t torn us apart yet.”
At the national level, USW called for a work stoppage on Feb. 1 involving roughly 3,800 workers at nine refineries owned by various oil companies. On Feb. 7, the USW expanded the strike to include roughly 1,440 more workers at two additional refineries. As of press time on Feb. 10, the strike was still on.
Outside the Santa Maria Refinery, Zepeda said 10 to 15 workers have been picketing every day for about two weeks, adding that—other than showing solidarity—the local USW chapter’s biggest issue is installing a new “fatigue policy” to give overworked employees some relief.
“It’s also a ticking time bomb, it’s a refinery where a lot can go up in flames,” Zepeda said. “You’ve got to have people that are alert and have their wits about them—you can’t live with some zombie at the controls.”
A Sun request for comment from Phillips 66 regarding the national strike and the local picketers was directed to Houston-based company spokesman Dennis Nuss.
“We are committed to reaching a new agreement that is good for our employees and protects the future of some of the best jobs in American industry,” Nuss wrote in an email to the Sun. “We are hopeful that we can achieve this goal without any interruption to our operations.”
This article appears in Feb 12-19, 2015.