By Mark Laurance
Unit Chair, USW Local 591, Anacortes Wash.
Three of my co-workers died on the spot. Four more died at the hospital in the following days. Our refinery will never be the same. Our community will never be the same.
In the days after the accident, company executives poured into town to express their condolences. Then-CEO Bruce Smith put out a brief statement, “This is a very sad time for our organization. Everyone in the Tesoro family appreciates the impact that this will have on the families involved, and we are responding quickly to ensure the safety for our employees, contractors and the neighboring community.”
They said they were sorry about the loss of life, the tragedy that we live with every day. But I think their real concern was the downtime at the refinery and the millions of dollars that they lost. Following the accident our refinery stopped operations for weeks, costing the company tens of millions of dollars. And months later the Washington State Department of Labor and Industry weighed in, citing the company for 44 violations and levying an initial fine of $2.39 million (the company continues to appeal the fine).
I believe that the company’s real reaction came months later when it announced plans to eliminate retiree healthcare, and destroy pension plans for hourly workers. They said they needed to do it to be ‘competitive’ but we think this is just the company’s attempt to recoup the millions they lost in the explosion at our refinery.
We go to work every day in one of the most dangerous industries on the planet. And while our union was able to achieve some improvements to refinery safety in our talks with the industry this year, we shouldn’t have to give up our retirement security for a safe workplace.
Tesoro can certainly afford to give us a decent pension. They made $546 million in profits last year in refining. And our new CEO Greg Goff took home $8.8 million in his first year with the company.
Tesoro wants us to pay for management’s mistakes. They came to the bargaining table this year at my refinery and at the USW-represented refineries in Martinez, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; Mandan, North Dakota; and Kapolei, Hawaii demanding the unfettered right to make their cuts to our pensions and retiree healthcare permanent. They also want the right to make changes to our benefit package without even bargaining with our union. All of this so they can keep paying dividends to shareholders and paying our CEO, Greg Goff a multi-million dollar salary. If the corporation contributed just 1% of its profits toward safety improvements it would save lives!
Here in Anacortes, we’ve already paid enough for their mistakes. Some of us have paid with our lives, the rest of us have lost friends and family members. We’ve paid with sweat, blood, and tears, and we’re not going to pay anymore.
Posted February 22, 2012 at 12:32 pm, in Free Speech Zone
