ANACORTES, WASH.--A $4.6 MILLION SETTLEMENT of a state investigation at the Equilon, Inc., oil refinery here is expected to yield improved safety in the plant, and a more active role on the issue for workers at the site.
PACE Local 8-591 represents the Equilon workers. The settlement was negotiated in late May among the local union, the Washington Industrial Safety & Health Admin. (WISHA), and Equilon. "I want to commend our local leadership and the state agency for the excellent job they did," said PACE Region Eleven Vice President Bill McGoveran. "We are all pleased they were able to convince the company to embrace a forward-looking solution."
A November 1998 fire in the refinery's coker unit killed six union members and two supervisors. The tragedy occurred the day after a power outage when malfunctioning gauges led the workers to conclude the unit had cooled from its normal 1,000 degree temperature. When they began to operate the unit, based on their gauge readings, water came in contact with petroleum that had not in fact cooled.
The water flashed into steam. The hot explosion caused a fire, and the six were incinerated '"The company just did not have a procedure to deal with that type of situation," said PACE Region Eleven Representative Thomas Lind, who assisted the workers during the settlement investigation.
An investigation by WISHA started immediately, with the local union and in-plant safety committees playing a key role. In Washington, health and safety investigations are required by law to be complete within six months. In May 1999, just as the six-month period ran out, a series of intensive telephone conversations among the parties resulted in a tentative agreement. "The state's investigators were truly concerned about safety in the refinery," said Lind.
"We see nothing but good coming out of this settlement," said Local 8-591's Equilon unit chair, George Welch. " We feel gratified we were able to set up a wall-to-wall safety inspection, and not have the company fight us on the citations, as in the past."
In the settlement, Equilon agreed to implement the union's Triangle of Prevention Program (TOP). TOP is a union-based alternative to company-promoted initiatives on health and safety that nearly always emphasize the worker as the cause of accidents. The TOP program was described in the April 1999 PACEsetter. There will be a full-time health and safety representative, selected by the local union from among its members and paid by the company.
Coker unit workers, who had been employed by outside contractors, will he Equilon employees, and will receive training in the TOP program. "Bringing the coke handlers into the bargaining unit will drastically improve their health and safety performance," said Welch. Equilon also agreed to a formal procedure of reviewing staffing and maintenance in the refinery.
"We're looking forward to seeing the TOP program implemented and the health and safety representative position filled." said Local 8-591 President Kim Nibargar. "We're very encouraged by this settlement."
Equilon agreed to pay $1.1 million to the state to settle its claims and $350,000 to the City of Anacortes. The company will commission a full third-party process safety management audit of the refinery, with the union and the state to have a role in selecting the auditors.
A variety of equipment and process improvements will be implemented. In addition, Equilon will give $1 million to establish a technical institute to study oil refinery safety and $1 million to Local 8-591 for a scholarship fund. "I am looking forward to the third-party audit to help us see how we can make the new program work better," said Brian Ricks, the local's in-plant health and safety committee chair at Equilon.
"The only thing we can do for those who lost their lives in November is do our best to make sure no accident of that kind ever happens again," said Nibargar. "This agreement will help us make that a reality."
The PACESetter, vol.1 no.5, July/August 1999