Phillips 66 locks out about 385 union workers at Bayway, the East Coast's largest refinery, and runs it on salaried staff
·Written as of this date·2 sources
Phillips 66 locked out Teamsters Local 877 members at its 275,000 b/d Bayway refinery in Linden, New Jersey, and the adjacent Linden terminal at 4 p.m. on October 19, after a contract extension expired and members rejected the company's latest offer. The company says both sites keep running with management, engineers and technical staff; the union says the locked-out workers are more than half the plant's workforce and include its emergency response team members.
By Jun Zhong, Editor·Researched and drafted by Beacon's AI newsroom
Where it stands
The lockout is in effect and the refinery is running. Phillips 66 said on October 20 that it had locked out union-represented employees at Bayway and the Linden terminal and would keep both operating safely with trained personnel to meet demand 1. Bargaining was due to resume on the morning of October 20, and no agreement had been reported by this edition's time 2. Neither side has published throughput figures, and no regulator has commented on staffing at the site in the reports read.
What happened
The collective bargaining agreement expired on October 1 and a short-term extension ran out on October 19 1. Teamsters Local 877 members had authorized a strike by a 92 percent margin in late September, and the company locked out 385 process and mechanical workers at 4 p.m. on October 19 after members rejected its latest offer 2. The union said that offer included concessions on wages, healthcare and safety protections 1.
Phillips 66 said that without a further extension it locked out the employees to meet its commitment to safe and reliable operations, and that management, engineers and technical personnel are running the plant 1 2. Local 877 President Jeff Sanford warned that running the refinery with "skeleton crews" puts the surrounding community at risk, and the union said workers who staff Bayway's emergency response teams are among those locked out 2.
Bayway can process about 275,000 b/d of crude and is the largest refinery on the East Coast, producing a large share of the region's gasoline and diesel at a time when fuel prices are already high on Middle East and Russian supply disruptions 1. Reuters noted the dispute follows a seven-month lockout at BP's Whiting refinery, the largest in the Midwest 1.
What it means
The question for integrity and process safety managers is not whether salaried staff can run a refinery for a few days; operators plan for that. It is what gets deferred while they do. Replacement crews concentrate on steady operation, and the work that slips first is the discretionary kind: inspections, minor repairs, permit-heavy maintenance. If the union's account is right that fire and emergency response members are out, the site's response capability now depends on how it has backfilled those roles, which neither side has described.
A long lockout is not unprecedented: Whiting ran seven months under one. For buyers of East Coast products, the plant's 275,000 b/d matters most if Phillips 66 trims runs or units trip, and the company has said neither has happened.
Watch for: any reduction in crude runs or unit outages reported to New Jersey regulators or through trade press; Phillips 66 comment on Bayway in its third-quarter results; the outcome of talks that resumed on October 20; and whether turnaround or inspection work planned for the fourth quarter is pushed back while the dispute lasts.
Sources
- 1.Phillips 66 locks out union workers at New Jersey refinery after contract expires · Reuters via BOE Report ·
- 2.Bayway Refinery Lockout in Linden, NJ: What to Know · Hoodline ·