In a show of support for striking refinery workers and their fight for stronger health and safety standards, registered nurses will hold a press conference with them Thursday in Martinez, Ca. Environmental organizations are also expected to join.

Members of the United Steel Workers have been walking picket lines at the Tesoro Golden Eagle refinery in Martinez, part of a major national strike, in large part over unsafe conditions that affect the workers and local communities. The RNs are members of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United.

What: Press Conference Support Action for Striking Refinery Workers
When: Thursday, February 12, 12 noon
Where: Intersection of Solano Way and Arnold Industrial Way, Martinez

Nurses will also be joining USW refinery workers on picket lines in Southern California at the Tesoro refinery in Carson Thursday, and at other national sites where the refinery workers are on strike in the coming days.
 
In a statement issued earlier this week, National Nurses United said it is “especially alarmed at the serious threat for workers and residents of local communities near the refineries posed by unsafe staffing levels, excessive worker overtime demands, and the reports of daily occurrences of fires, emissions, leaks and explosions that put tens of thousands of people in danger.”

Refinery workers say that fires, explosions, and leaks are near-daily occurrences at many of the refineries and one of the USW’s more urgent demands is to afford workers the authority to stop work under unsafe conditions.

“Nurses are on the front lines in the fight against asthma and these other chronic diseases that can be triggered by these toxic emissions at refineries,” said CNA Board member Katy Roemer, an Oakland RN. “We think it’s important to picket in solidarity with the refinery workers not just to show our support for them, but also to expand the reach of our work as patient advocates.”

“Protecting public safety as well as that of the workers is why it is so vital for workers to have a strong voice on the job through collective bargaining. Democracy shouldn’t end at the front door to your workplace,” said Roemer.

There have been several reports of injuries at the Martinez refinery, including two in less than a month in 2014. On February 12 of last year, an alkylation unit involved in gasoline production was shut at the 166,000 barrel-per-day plant after it spewed sulfuric acid, injuring two workers. Three weeks later, the same unit spewed acid again, injuring two additional workers.

The plant’s 400 striking workers—machinists, mechanics, maintenance workers, pipefitters and refinery operators—are represented by the USW.
 
NNU also supports the USW fight against sub-contracting of union jobs and other contract standards that are a part of this dispute. “We also call on our elected officials to demand the oil giants, who receive so much economic and political assistance from government, stop their attack on the oil workers and reach a fair settlement that respects the workers’ rights as well as public safety,” NNU stated this week.