Deja vu for way of life of refinery workers

The Philadelphia region dodged a bullet recently when a catastrophe was narrowly averted when an explosion and fire rocked the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery in South Philly.

Only the valiant efforts of a refinery worker – following the protocol for just such a situation – averted a massive disaster. The worker acted quickly to remove highly toxic hydrofluoric acid from the unit that was rocked by the blast.

Had that safety protocol not been carried out as efficiently and quickly as it was, a potentially lethal cloud of hydrogen fluoride could have spread quickly over a seven-mile radius. More than a million people would have been affected.

As it was, only a few refinery workers suffered minor injuries. A tragedy was averted. That is not to say the fire will not take a massive toll on the region – in the form of more than 1,000 jobs.

Just days after the fire, which burned for more than 24 hours, was allowed to burn itself out, Philadelphia Energy Solutions announced it would shutter the facility while seeking a buyer.

Neighbors and environmental groups cheered the news. It’s a safe bet none of them work in the plant.

Hundreds of Delaware County workers do.

For them, it’s a case of déjà vu all over again.

They’ve been down this road before.

Back in 2012, Sunoco made a similar decision, informing workers at its iconic Marcus Hook plant that it was getting out of the refinery business. They announced they would seek buyers for both the Hook and South Philly refineries. If no buyer came forward, they would close the doors.

A few months later, they locked the gates at the refinery where J. Howard Pew first put down roots along the Delaware River at the turn of the 20th century.

That news was followed just a few weeks later by a similar salvo from ConocoPhillips, which announced it would do likewise at its refinery next door in Trainer.

It can be safely said that refinery jobs were a way of life in the lower end of Delaware County, the river towns that lined the Delaware. For generations, they meant a ticket to a solid, middle-class life, wages on which to raise a family.

All of that was now in danger.

Delta Air Lines came to the rescue of the ConocoPhillips facility, buying the Trainer plant and branding it as Monroe, where they could bank on a reliable source of jet fuel.

No such savior arrived for Marcus Hook. Some of those workers, who saw “way of life” hanging by a thread, saved when Sunoco forged a deal with the Carlyle Group and created Philadelphia Energy Solutions. The South Philly refinery got a reprieve. So did that “way of life.”

A reprieve that now is in danger of expiring.

United Steelworkers Union Local 10-1, which represents the bulk of the refinery workers, is headquartered in Norwood. Ryan O’Callaghan, a Ridley resident, is the union president.

He knows the sound of this tune. You might call it a dirge. “The economic impact is going to spread far and wide,” O’Callaghan said. “We just can’t find jobs around the corner. It’s a specialty occupation.”

Philadelphia Energy Solutions is the largest refinery on the East Coast. Each day more than 2,000 workers walk through the gates, about 700 Steelworkers, 300 salaried personnel and an estimated 700 workers from the Building Trades.

Union refinery workers can make as much as $100,000 a year. Those kinds of jobs are scarce for these specialized workers. And they’re about to get more scarce. Some workers may need to relocated, possibly to the Gulf Coast, if they want to stay in the refinery business for which they have trained.

“It’s been devastating,” O’Callaghan said in terms of the effect on the local workforce. “This is a job that you get and you stay in forever. There aren’t that many jobs left.”

In perhaps an especially bitter irony, it was their training and skills that averted a disaster – but could not save their jobs.

“A whole culture is getting wiped away, not just the jobs,” O’Callaghan said.

In short, a way of life is disappearing. And this time, it’s likely not coming back.