BY JIM ALTENBERG
MARTINEZ, California - One worker was killed and 25
others injured in a huge explosion and fire at the Tosco
Avon oil refinery here the evening of January 21. The blast
and subsequent fire took place in the plant's hydrocracker
unit, where gasoline and diesel fuel are produced from
heavier fuel oils in a process using hydrogen under
pressures as high as 1700 pounds per square inch. Process
equipment was set afire, and windows were blown out
throughout the plant. While most of the plant is currently
shut down, either due to the fire or for major maintenance
work, those units able to operate continue to do so.
A thick cloud of black smoke, said by company spokesperson Jim Simmons to be non-toxic soot, covered the plant and surrounding area. Nevertheless, residents of the nearby town of Clyde were told to stay indoors. Reporters for KTVU television said that Contra Costa County officials who operate a community warning system for refinery and chemical accidents only learned of the explosion from the sheriff's department, and they were unable to reach the refinery by phone for half an hour.
Company officials have remained quiet about the cause of the explosion, and investigations by the company, county officials, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have begun. Tosco could be fined or subject to criminal penalties should violations of OSHA rules were found. The company has also not announced the names of the workers who were killed and injured.
Workers arriving for the day shift the next morning took care to check on one another's morale, and tried to learn the facts of what had happened. Many called co-workers elsewhere in the plant or stopped by control rooms and maintenance shops. Discussions on deteriorating conditions at the refinery, and whether or not union power could actually be used to fight the company over safety, took place throughout the day. Some expressed resentment at local news media coverage on the Tosco explosion, which has highlighted the large number of serious refinery and chemical plant accidents of the past few years and reported sympathetically on environmental and community groups pressing for improvements in refinery safety. As of this writing, no statement has been issued from officials of Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW) Local 1-5, the union at the plant.
At the Unocal refinery in Rodeo, some 10 miles away, the company announced that all Bay Area refineries would observe a 2:00 p.m. moment of silence to commemorate the worker killed at Tosco. No such announcement was made at Tosco.
Meanwhile, the Tosco Corporation has rapidly expanded its refining operations. The company is set to buy Unocal's West Coast refineries in February. It has been touted in the big-business press as the "low cost" refinery that can make it in the face of falling profit rates and intensified competition. In 1996, workers at what had been British Petroleum's Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, refinery were locked out for eight months when Tosco bought the plant, in order to force sharp concessions from OCAW members. Now, workers at Unocal's California plants have been told they will not all return to work under Tosco, and that they will be "offered" jobs without regard to plant seniority.
Jim Altenberg is a member of OCAW Local 1-5 at Tosco's
Avon refinery in Martinez, California. Jim Gotesky, a member
of OCAW 1-326 at Unocal in Rodeo, California, contributed to
this article.
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