NEWS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE
OIL, CHEMICAL & ATOMIC WORKERS INT'L. UNION, AFL-CIO
For Immediate Release: June 15, 1998
Contact: Joe Drexler, OCAW special projects director,
303-987-5329
Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union
applauds release of jailed Nigerian trade unionists
Kokori, Dabibi
LAKEWOOD, Colo.--The Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers
International Union (OCAW) today applauded the news of
the release of jailed Nigerian trade unionists, Frank
Kokori and Milton Dabibi, along with seven other
political prisoners.
It also commended its rank-and-file members
throughout the country who were mobilizing on behalf of
the Nigerian trade unionists.
According to OCAW, reports indicate that the
prisoners will be released sometime within the next two
days.
"If these reports of the release of Kokori and
Dabibi are true, we believe it is a step in the right
direction and hopefully will lead to the full restoration
of democracy and trade union rights in Nigeria," said
Robert Wages, president of the 85,000-member OCAW.
OCAW has been instrumental in pressuring U.S. oil
companies for the past six months to use their influence
in obtaining the release of the jailed trade unionists.
"Hopefully, the next step will be to end the
government takeover of the oil workers' union and the
freeze on the unions' assets," said Wages. "Complete
restoration of trade union rights in Nigeria will send a
positive message that the government is moving in the
direction of democracy."
According to Wages, OCAW is taking a "wait and see
attitude" before it substantially alters its current
plans and further mobilization efforts.
Kokori and Dabibi were jailed -- without being
charged -- in 1994 and 1996. They and their unions,
NUPENG and PENGASSAN, have been the focus of an
international campaign launched by the International
Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers'
Unions, to which OCAW is affiliated.
OCAW has been a leading union in the U.S. in calling
for the release of the jailed trade union leaders and for
the restoration of trade union rights, and has been
conducting extensive education of its membership on the
issue. Recently, it held protests against the use of
Nigerian crude oil by Sun Company and Tosco, and is
planning major activities at Mobil and Chevron.
==================================================================
NEWS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE
OIL, CHEMICAL & ATOMIC WORKERS INT'L. UNION, AFL-CIO
For immediate release: June 11, 1998
Contact: Joe Anderson, OCAW health and safety director,
(303) 987-2229
Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union's
accident review of Pennzoil explosion determines EPA
report to be incomplete
LAKEWOOD, Colo.The Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers
(OCAW) released the following news release:
When it comes to providing petrochemical workers
urgently needed safety information, the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has delivered too little, too
late.
It took 29 months for the EPA to complete its
investigative report of the October 16, 1995 disaster at
the Pennzoil Refinery in Rouseville, Pa. An explosion and
fire killed five workers and caused extensive damage to
the plant.
The Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW)
represents the work force at Pennzoil. The union has
conducted a review of the accident and determined that
the long-overdue EPA report is woefully incomplete and
that its recommendations miss the mark badly.
The accident occurred when flammable vapors were
released from a storage tank while welding was being done
on the tank stairway. According to the EPA, a 9-degree
increase in the outside temperature that morning caused
warming of the flammable liquid inside the tank. This
generated an increase in flammable vapor that was
released through openings in the tank in the area where
the welding was being done.
The tank exploded, as did another tank located four
feet away. The welder and helper died as a result of
their injuries. A wall of fire engulfed many other tanks
and several contractor trailers that had been placed
nearby. Three contractors inside their trailer were
burned and died.
"Industry and the government promised that the 1992
enactment of the OSHA Process Safety Management Standard
would put an end to the disasters that had become
frequent occurrences in the petrochemical industry," said
OCAW President Robert E. Wages. "This promise has not been
kept. The disaster at Pennzoil is a wake-up call that
there are still huge holes in the government's and
industry's safety programs."
The EPA report's recommendations would merely
continue the same inadequate safety practices that
contributed to causing the disaster at Pennzoil.
The report recommendations over-rely on the use of
a risk assessment tool called Process Hazard Analysis
(PHA). In a PHA, possible safety problems are examined
and options for addressing the hazards are presented to
management for consideration.
A PHA can be a useful safety tool, but absent
mandatory and specific equipment design standards, PHA's
often do not result in significant improvements in
workplace safety. Fifty different plants can perform a
PHA of virtually identical hazardous facilities yet use
vastly different levels of safety practices.
In the case of Pennzoil, older storage tanks
containing flammable materials were missing basic design
safety features that could have averted the catastrophe.
The tanks did not have pressure relief devices or roof
seams designed to fail first in an explosion. This
allowed tanks to fail catastrophically at their bottom
seams and to take off like rockets while releasing all of
their flammable contents.
Many of Pennzoil's tanks were not individually
diked. This allowed a wave of burning liquid to quickly
spread over a wide area of the plant, causing extensive
damage.
The safety problems at Pennzoil that lead to the
disaster are by no means unique to that facility. Plants
all over the country have similar equipment design and
other safety system flaws.
The accident at Pennzoil demonstrates that the
industry practice of "grandfathering" older substandard
equipment is unsafe. "Grandfathering" is the practice of
using current safety standards for newly installed
equipment while applying inferior guidelines for existing
equipment.
The tanks that exploded at Pennzoil were nearly 60
years old and were not in compliance with essential safe
design standards. The EPA report's warm and fuzzy
recommendations will do little to prevent "grandfathered"
time bombs similar to the ones at Pennzoil from exploding
in the future.
"The disaster at Pennzoil shows that effective
protection of plants, workers and the environment
requires that specific design safety measures are
required nationwide," said Wages. "One already
widely-accepted example of this fact is the need to equip
all pressure vessels with high pressure relief safety
systems."
Since the EPA has fumbled the ball on the Pennzoil
investigation, the OCAW has developed the attached list
of accident prevention recommendations based on the
lessons that should be learned from the accident [see
under HEALTH & SAFETY DEPARTMENT below]. For further
information, contact Joe Anderson, OCAW health and
safety director at (303) 987-2229.
==================================================================
NEWS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE
OIL, CHEMICAL & ATOMIC WORKERS INT'L UNION, AFL-CIO
For Immediate release: June 8, 1998
Contact: Beverly Watson, WIPP hourly employee,
505-236-6670
Roger Simmons, WIPP hourly employee,
505-885-0032
Wayne Horman, OCAW Organizer,
505-885-8414
WASTE ISOLATION PILOT PROJECT EMPLOYEES SEEK
OIL, CHEMICAL & ATOMIC WORKERS UNION REPRESENTATION
Statement by Union Organizing Committee at WIPP,
Carlsbad, NM
CARLSBAD, NM - Hourly employees of Westinghouse at the
Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) recently joined
together to form a union through the Oil, Chemical and
Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW). We want the
general public to know why we felt we needed to form a
union.
Our employer, Westinghouse Corporation (WELCO/WID), is
being sold. When we asked what was to happen to our jobs,
incomes and benefits, we were given no guarantee that
they would continue in their present form. We decided to
ask OCAW to help us form a local union and assist us in
negotiating a labor agreement that will provide
contractual guarantees of job, income and benefit
security regardless of which employer operates the
facility. After all, everyone else who does business at
WIPP has a contract; we should have one too.
"In fact, we think it is even more important to our
community and state that we have a contract because we
are an integral part of the community," said organizing
committee member Beverly Watson.
"Our jobs, income and benefits enable us to raise and
educate our children and keep them healthy in Carlsbad,
and beyond that, many employees are looking toward
retiring with dignity here," she added. "Management and
Operations contractors come and go; we are here to stay."
More than 140 hourly workers presently work at WIPP, a
nuclear waste repository 26 miles southeast of Carlsbad.
Although a wage increase is not a driving issue for our
campaign, we are aware that general wage levels are below
the atomic industry averages. Beyond job, income and
benefit security, the other key issue is pay equity.
There are numerous examples of employees doing the same
job, but receiving vastly different pay.
We have concluded that resolving such matters to our
satisfaction but especially achieving job, income and
benefit security will require us to join together with
each other and with the over 5,000 employees throughout
the atomic industry who compose the OCAW Atomic Council.
They have successfully dealt with corporate contractors
at Department of Energy atomic facilities for over 50
years, and they have the collective bargaining record and
contracts to prove it. We have learned that the OCAW
Atomic Council is the leader in setting labor standards
for the industry. We are convinced that organizing our
union with OCAW is absolutely necessary regardless of who
our employer is.
==================================================================
NEWS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE
OIL, CHEMICAL & ATOMIC WORKERS INT'L. UNION, AFL-CIO
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 1, 1998
Contact: John Bradley, president,
DuPont Edge Moor Independent Union,
(610-274-8420 or 302-761- 2360).
Art Wilson, OCAW international representative,
(302-234-0705).
Richard Leonard, OCAW organizing director,
(1-800-825-6405).
DuPont Workers Merge with National
Oil, Chemical, Atomic Workers Union
Independent DuPont union votes to team
with OCAW-AFL-CIO in historic vote
WILMINGTON, Del. - The Oil, Chemical and Atomic
Workers Union released the following:
In a May 28-29, 1998 election, 234 workers at a
Wilmington, Del., DuPont facility voted to affiliate
their independent union with the Oil, Chemical and Atomic
Workers Union (OCAW). The vote carried by a margin of
over 70 percent.
The decision is viewed as "historic," according to
the two unions.
"DuPont has fought hard to keep its workers isolated
in separate independent unions," said John Bradley,
president of the Wilmington-based DuPont Edge Moor union.
According to OCAW International Representative
Richard Massengill, who assisted in the effort, this was
the first successful attempt by any DuPont independent
union to affiliate with a national labor organization.
"Over 8,000 DuPont employees in 21 independent
unions have been waging a difficult struggle to save jobs
and preserve conditions," Massengill said "It is
particularly significant that the first location to break
away is literally located in the shadow of the company
headquarters in Wilmington."
"During the 1990s, this company has become
preoccupied on cutting costs and raising cash to buy up
new businesses," Bradley said. "They've completely
focused on the bottom line - they've forgotten their
people.
"They've changed, and we need to change too, and
this affiliation will give us the backing to deal with a
new and vastly different DuPont."
The DuPont independent union had been in protracted
negotiations since January 1998 over wage increases and
a demand by DuPont that a group of mostly female clerical
workers accept deep wage cuts. When negotiations and
spirited demonstrations at the plant and company
headquarters were ineffective in getting DuPont to back
off from its position, the independent union invited OCAW
to assist the workers. Just days before the affiliation
vote, DuPont relented, offering wage increases to all
employees, including the clerical staff.
The DuPont facility, which is generally referred to
as the Edge Moor plant, is located on the Delaware River
about two miles from DuPont's headquarters. It
manufactures titanium dioxide pigments, and employs
about 400 people.
OCAW, which is headquartered in Lakewood, Colo.,
represents about 90,000 workers in the oil,
petrochemical, industrial chemical and pharmaceutical
industries, including 1,500 employees at DuPont's Conoco
subsidiary.
==================================================================
NEWS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE
OIL, CHEMICAL & ATOMIC WORKERS INT'L. UNION, AFL-CIO
For immediate release: April 24, 1998
Contact: Texans United Education Fund:
Jim Baldauf, 512-517-2663
Vivian Newman, 410-442-5639
National Coalition of Environmental, Worker,
and Religious Groups Converge on Crown Central Petroleum
Shareholder Meeting
Ellicott City, MD -- At Thursday's annual Crown
Central Petroleum shareholders' meeting, representatives
of a national coalition of hundreds of environmental,
worker and religious groups addressed shareholders and
management on a long list of complaints against the
company. They also introduced and offered for a vote, two
separate minority shareholder resolutions critical of
management compensation increases in the face of
increasing corporate problems.
The coalition has recently added more than 50
national and local environmental groups -- including the
Sierra Club, Environmental Defense Fund, Natural
Resources Defense Council, Atlantic States Legal
Foundation and the Oil Refinery Network -- to its
endorsed "Open Letter to Crown's Owners and
Stockholders." The open letter supports legal actions and
consumer boycotts against Crown, and urges the company to
become a responsible corporate citizen. The coalition
also supports locked-out workers at Crown's Pasadena,
Texas facility.
The environmental groups join hundreds of religious
and labor leaders, including several bishops and rabbis,
the AFL-CIO, the National Black Caucus of State
Legislators, the Baltimore City Council and other critics
of Crown's actions.
"Crown has been sued in federal court for more than
10,000 hours of violations of the Clean Air Act at its
Pasadena refinery," said Texans United Director Rick
Abraham.
About 200 residents have also filed suit in Texas,
accusing the refinery of disrupting their health and
daily lives through negligent operations. Crown's
pollution is a result of poor management, maintenance and
other operational problems that often lead to massive air
releases from the aging refinery into the surrounding
community. One such release involved more than 71 tons of
sulfur dioxide over a three-day period in 1997.
According to Abraham, the EPA and the U.S.
Department of Justice have taken action against Crown for
the same violations cited by the environmental
organizations. Crown has previously claimed that the
environmental lawsuits were without merit and were part
of a union conspiracy.
Crown also has been sued by employees for civil
rights violations at the Pasadena and Tyler, Texas
plants. The lawsuit alleges a pattern of discrimination
in Crown's promotion policies.
At the shareholders' meeting, the coalition
distributed copies of the "Open Letter," and copies of a
report entitled, "Dirty Business," detailing the
company's history of pollution and misinformation. The
coalition also supports the minority shareholder
resolutions that were voted on by shareholders at the
annual meeting at the Turf Valley Conference Center in
Ellicott City.
==================================================================
NEWS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE
OIL, CHEMICAL & ATOMIC WORKERS INT'L. UNION, AFL-CIO
For immediate release: April 27, 1998
Contact: Joseph A. Anderson, (303)987-2229
OCAW International Director, Health & Safety
Industry plan would continue using workers
as toxic guinea pigs
LAKEWOOD, Colo. -- The Chemical Manufacturers
Association (CMA) Earth Day announcement of plans to
increase the testing of toxic chemicals offers little to
celebrate for America's workers. The CMA plan was
released within hours of Vice President Al Gore's public
request for the chemical industry to study the effects of
industrial chemicals or face government action.
Workers are suffering an epidemic of exposures to
untested toxic substances. Only 7 percent of the 3,800
most widely used chemicals have been thoroughly studied
to determine their health effects. There are more than
70,000 chemicals already in use by industry. One
thousand new chemicals are added to the list of toxic
time bombs each year. The Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) has safe exposure regulations for
less than 1 percent of these chemicals. The CMA plan
would only increase testing to cover 100 chemicals per
year beginning in 2003.
"At this rate, it will take 30 years just to test
the most widely used toxic materials," said Oil, Chemical
and Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW) President
Robert E. Wages. "The chemical industry and the
government have created a system of chemical production
and regulation based on the false notion that industrial
chemicals are safe until proven to be dangerous.
"They poison us first and study later their system
of chemical production that victimizes workers, the
public and the environment."
"Adding insult to injury, the CMA plan would
continue the unethical practice of having chemical health
studies controlled by the very same companies that profit
from the production of the chemical being studied," Wages
added.
The OCAW proposes the following solutions to the
out-of-control chemical crisis:
1) All new chemicals must be fully studied prior to
being commercially produced.
2) The federal government must regulate chemical
testing and take primary responsibility for
insuring the accuracy of these tests.
3) OSHA must require that each facility purchasing
toxic chemical conducts a health and safety
review of each toxic chemical prior to bringing
it into the workplace. OSHA must insure worker
and union participation on these chemical safety
review teams.
For further information, contact OCAW Health and
Safety Director Joseph Anderson at (303)987-2229.
==================================================================
NEWS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE
OIL, CHEMICAL & ATOMIC WORKERS INT'L. UNION, AFL-CIO
For immediate release: April 17, 1998
Contact: Joseph A. Anderson, (303)987-2229
OCAW International Director, Health & Safety
American Petroleum Institute figures don't accurately
reflect petroleum industry's safety record
LAKEWOOD, COLO. -- The American Petroleum
Institute's (API) April 15 announcement of its strong
safety record only underscores what the Oil, Chemical,
and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW) has been saying for many
years: that the OSHA Recordable Rate for Injuries and
Illnesses is woefully inadequate as an indicator of
safety for petrochemical and petroleum plants. These
facilities have traditionally had low injury rates; they
are capital rather than labor-intensive and fewer workers
mean less injuries. When accidents occur in these
facilities, they tend to be of the catastrophic variety
like the Phillips Petroleum 1989 tragedy in Pasadena,
Texas where an explosion led to 23 dead and several
hundred injured.
"Many U.S.-based refineries are older facilities.
This, combined with the ever-increasing drive for
profits, has led to a reduced work force and the virtual
elimination of preventative maintenance practice,"
according to Robert E. Wages, OCAW president. "This lack
of preventative maintenance increases the likelihood of
catastrophic accidents and releases, but the focus on
minimizing the work force has driven the OSHA recordable
rate down."
"Furthermore, there are many incentives for workers
not to report injuries, including fear of discipline and
reward systems which drive reporting underground. While
it is commendable that the OSHA rate is low, our concern
is that this masks other larger and potentially more
devastating problems."
"Further, this is less than a complete picture,
because the API figures accord with OSHA regulations,
which only require the recordable rates for regular
workers and not contractors."
According to the John Gray report, a 1991 study of
contract labor in the petrochemical industry commissioned
by OSHA, current data reporting procedures do not capture
the full range of injury and illness experienced in the
industry because of the exclusion of contract workers.
Also, the problem with using the OSHA recordable rate in
such facilities is that it is reactive rather then
preventive. There is a dire need for a safety index that
incorporate parameters that focus on prevention.
To this end, OCAW has devised such an index and it
is part of the union's Triangle of Prevention Program
(TOPP), a joint labor-management program designed by
rank-and-file workers.
The OCAW index includes all recordable injuries,
contractor and regular workers; fires and explosions
requiring an emergency team response; chemical releases,
and community complaints of injuries and illnesses.
For further information on the OCAW Triangle of
Prevention Program (TOPP), contact Health and Safety
Director, Joseph Anderson.
==================================================================
NEWS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE
OIL, CHEMICAL & ATOMIC WORKERS INT'L. UNION, AFL-CIO
For Immediate Release: March 25, 1998
Contacts: Roger Bradley, Dir., Atlantic Region - 703-876-9700
Joe Drexler, Special Projects Director - 303-987-5349
Bob Burdick, International Rep. - 609-428-3115
Art Wilson, International Rep. - 302-234-0705
Oil Workers' Union Begins Campaign To Win Release of
Jailed Nigerian Labor Leaders
Philadelphia Refineries of Sun Company Targeted in
Protest Over Use of Nigerian Crude Oil
LAKEWOOD, CO -- The Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers
International Union (OCAW) will start efforts today to
win the release of Frank Kokori and Milton Dabibi, two
Nigerian oil union leaders who have been imprisoned since
1994 and 1996.
The two labor leaders have been declared "prisoners of
conscience" by Amnesty International. They are believed
to be in poor health, and have been denied medical care
and legal assistance.
The OCAW efforts are part of a worldwide campaign to win
the release of the jailed labor leaders. The actions are
being coordinated by the International Federation of
Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions --
representing some 20 million union members worldwide --
and to which OCAW is affiliated. The campaign is
promoting an international boycott of Nigerian crude oil
to secure the union leaders' release.
The U.S. is the largest importer of Nigerian crude oil.
OCAW actions are viewed as a "significant first step to
let U.S. oil companies and the Nigerian government know
that we are preparing for action," said Robert Wages,
OCAW President. OCAW represents almost all of the
unionized oil refinery workers in the U.S.
The first OCAW effort starts today at Philadelphia-area
refineries operated by Sun Company. Similar efforts will
start next week at Tosco, which operates a refinery in
Marcus Hook, Pa.
"We will be attempting to persuade the companies to find
another source of crude oil," said Roger Bradley,
director of OCAW's Atlantic Region.
"If the Pope can speak out against Nigeria's military
dictatorship and for the release of political prisoners,
so can we," said Bob Burdick, OCAW international
representative, in referring to Pope John Paul's call for
the release of political prisoners during his visit to
Nigeria five days ago.
Informational handbilling and one-on-one discussions will
be occurring throughout this week and next at Sun and
Tosco refineries in the Philadelphia area. The actions
are aimed at informing and educating union members on the
situation in Nigeria. OCAW members will also be signing
petitions addressed to each company's CEO, calling for an
end to the use of Nigerian crude oil and asking that the
CEOs use their leverage to seek the trade union leaders'
release.
Postcards from OCAW members at the refineries and other
OCAW-represented workplaces on the East Coast, demanding
the release of Kokori and Dabibi, are also being sent to
the Nigerian Ambassador in Washington, DC.
OCAW will gradually escalate its activities, targeting
oil refining companies nationwide, until the trade union
leaders are released. Other U.S. oil companies importing
Nigerian crude are Mobil, Texaco, Chevron, Shell, and
Phillips Petroleum.
Letters were sent by President Wages on Tuesday to the
CEOs of oil companies which process Nigerian crude,
urging them to use their influence to seek release of the
trade unionists and to find an alternative source of
crude oil.
"Although we are directly seeking the release of Kokori
and Dabibi, we join with others throughout the world who
are calling for the release of all political prisoners in
Nigeria and for the restoration of democracy," added
Wages.
Frank Kokori, general secretary of NUPENG -- which
represents Nigeria's production and refinery oil workers
-- was imprisoned by the current Abacha dictatorship
after oil workers struck in 1994 in protest over the
military regime's draconian anti-labor decrees. Milton
Dabibi, general secretary of PENGASSAN -- largely
representing white-collar oil company employees -- was
jailed in 1996 for protesting the lack of democracy and
the incarceration of Kokori. Both unions have been taken
over by the military government and have had their bank
accounts frozen.
==================================================================
NEWS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE
OIL, CHEMICAL & ATOMIC WORKERS INT'L. UNION, AFL-CIO
For immediate release: February 24, 1998
Contact: Roger Bradley, Atlantic Region Director
703-876-9700
Joe Drexler, Special Projects Director
303-987-5329
UNION WINS SECOND ELECTION AT DSM POLYMER IN VIRGINIA
Support from Dutch Trade Union Provides
Margin of Victory
By a vote of 42 to 40, workers at the Dutch-owned DSM
Polymer plant in Wytheville, Virginia voted again to be
represented by the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers
International Union (OCAW).
OCAW won a first election in January, 1996. DSM refused
to recognize the result of the first election and in over
30 negotiation sessions, made only minor concessions and
offered contract provisions providing less than what
workers currently had, in order to keep the union from
securing a contract.
"We have fought for over two years to secure a decent and
fair contract, and now well call upon DSM management to
negotiate in good faith with the union to settle the
contract in the interest of all concerned," said Frank
Arnold, chairman of the OCAW organizing committee at the
plant and a DSM employee.
The election was marked by the direct involvement of the
Dutch trade union, FNV Bondgenoten, the largest trade
union in the Netherlands with over one million members,
including workers at DSM plants in Holland.
In December, a delegation of Dutch trade unionists
traveled to Wytheville to investigate charges by OCAW
that DSM had engaged in "union busting" at its Wytheville
plant, a practice unheard of in Holland. Another
delegation from Holland came to Wytheville last week to
talk to the workers about the importance of unions, and
OCAW believes that the assistance of Bondgenoten was
instrumental in the victory.
"We believe that both Dutch and American workers have
sent a strong message to the DSM Board of Directors in
the Netherlands that it is time to settle longstanding
differences and negotiate fairly with OCAW sad its
workers," said Henk Walravens, a Bondgenoten union
representative who participated in the union campaign.
According a, OCAW President Robert Wages, the direct
involvement of Dutch trade unionists in the election
campaign "is unprecedented and signals a growing
awareness of the necessity far unions to work together in
the global economy.
"We extend our deep and profound appreciation to our
Dutch brothers and sisters and congratulate the workers
in Wytheville who have waged a long and bitter struggle
for economic justice and worker rights," said Wages,
"We believe that the election has decided the question of
representation, and we can move on to develop a
constructive collective bargaining relationship
benefitting both the company and the workers," said OCAW
international Representative Steve Gentry, who
coordinated the two-year campaign against DSM.
==================================================================
NEWS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE
OIL, CHEMICAL & ATOMIC WORKERS INTL. UNION, AFL-CIO
For immediate release: January 15, 1998
CONTACT: Dean Cook, OCAW Local 4-227, (713)649-2714
Joe Drexler, OCAW Special Projects Director,
(303)987-2229
Oil Workers' Union Says Governor's Effort
to Reduce Emissions at Polluting Refineries
Lets Corporations Off Hook
Inclusion of Crown Control Petroleum
in the Plan is Tip-off of Flawed Policy
LAKEWOOD, COLO. - Robert E. Wages, president of the Oil,
Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW),
which represents refinery workers throughout the country,
today lashed out at the belief that some of the worst
polluters in Texas can be brought into compliance with
clean air standards under a voluntary program Governor
Bush wants to institute.
"As the major representative of oil workers in the U.S.,
we have a role in ensuring that oil companies behave
responsibly in the community as well as at the workplace,
and we believe that the voluntary compliance program is
a complete abdication of government's responsibility to
ensure a decent environment," Wages said.
"A company such as Crown Central Petroleum will never
comply," he said. He cited the three-fold increase in
emissions from Crown's Pasadena refinery after the
company forcibly removed experienced workers from the
plant and replaced them with a reduced work force of
inexperienced contract workers.
"The Crown refinery in Pasadena is the oldest refinery on
the Houston Ship Channel and possibly the dirtiest,"
Wages said. "Crown and other companies are already
getting away with significant environmental crimes and
now instead of cracking down, the governor wants to make
it easier for Crown and other refineries to remain out of
compliance and escape any penalties for their crimes."
Jim Byrd, OCAW Gulf Coast regional director, stated
"Years of voluntarism for these grandfathered plants have
resulted in almost no improvements, and what makes anyone
think that more voluntarism will lead to any positive
changes?"
Byrd also said the inclusion of Crown Central Petroleum
"is the tipoff, plain as night and day, that voluntary
compliance is bogus.
"Crown has thumbed its nose at a $50 million lawsuit by
local residents for health and property damages, and at
another lawsuit to force compliance with emission
standards and installation of emission monitoring
equipment."
OCAW supports the elimination of loopholes that allow
companies to avoid the Texas Clean Air Act. According to
government statistics, more than half of the industrial
air pollution in Texas comes from grandfathered and
exempted facilities. This is preventable pollution that
harms the health and safety of the workers and the
community.