Local 10-1 Criticizes Sunoco’s Response to Hurricane Irene

Contact: Jim Savage, Local 10-1 President, (215) 510-2281

Philadelphia—United Steelworkers Union (USW) Local 10-1 says Sunoco put at risk its workers, equipment and the community by continuing to operate during hurricane Irene.

“Sunoco did less to protect its refining assets than the average homeowner did to protect his or her home,” said Local 10-1 President Jim Savage. “The company ‘rolled the dice’ despite the very real possibility of there being power outages, flooding and equipment breakdowns during the storm. Luckily, no one got hurt.”

Savage said that Sunoco shut down its hydrofluoric acid unit in advance of the storm, but only reduced the operating rates for its crude units. If one of these units had failed, workers would have had to go outside during the storm in gale-force winds and possible flooding to ensure the units did not cause further danger.

He said Sunoco should have either shut its Philadelphia and Marcus Hook refineries down and left the units in an idle state until the storm threat had passed or had back-up generators, air compressors and hydrogen trailers on site if it decided to not shut down. The company also should have used sandbags to protect critical refinery infrastructure like electric switch rooms, sub-stations and critical pumps from flooding, said the Local.   

The ConocoPhillips refinery in Bayway, N.J., opted to leave its units in idle and the PBF Energy refinery in Delaware City, Del., chose to have backup equipment in case power, air or steam was lost.

“Sunoco did neither in preparation for the storm,” Savage said. “The company dodged a bullet this time around. It might not be so lucky when the next hurricane hits the East Coast.”

The USW is the largest industrial union in North America and has 850,000 members in the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean. It represents workers employed in metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining, atomic energy and the service sector. In the oil sector the USW represents 30,000 production, refining, marketing, transportation and pipeline workers. Local 10-1 represents about 600 workers at the Sunoco Philadelphia refinery. The USW also represents about 450 workers at Sunoco’s Marcus Hook refinery.

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