USW Striking Oil Workers And Supporters Speakout For Health And Safety At Tesoro Refinery

By Kenny Stancil - Common Dreams, April 30, 2022

In an act of solidarity with Chevron workers fighting for a new labor contract as executives boast of a record-breaking quarter, Greenpeace USA campaigners joined United Steelworkers Local 5 union members on Friday to expand the picket line onto the waters of San Francisco Bay.

Nearly 500 workers from Chevron's oil refinery in Richmond, California have been on strike for more than a month in what USW Local 5 vice president B.K. White calls "a movement of working people rising up to challenge a corporation." 

Chevron announced Friday that its profits surged to $6.3 billion during the first three months of 2022—four times as much as the fossil fuel giant pulled in over the same period last year, as Common Dreams reported. That prompted fresh calls from progressives for a windfall tax to prevent further price gouging and war profiteering by Big Oil and underscored one of the reasons why workers are demanding better pay.

"What's the answer to corporate greed?" Greenpeace asked on social media. "Solidarity!"

Good morning from our floating picket line!

I'm Ben from @greenpeaceusa. We're out here with oil workers from United Steelworkers (USW) Local 5 expanding their picket line from land to sea at @Chevron refinery in Richmond where they are on strike.

Why? #solidarity #1u pic.twitter.com/xvqZA35fTg

— Ben Smith (@whereisbenjo) April 29, 2022

"This a message to Chevron and corporations everywhere—when workers are battling executives for their fair share, Greenpeace USA will be standing alongside," Tefere Gebre, the group's chief program officer, said in a statement. "Workers shouldn't have to go on strike to get a fair contract from greedy fossil fuel companies making record profits. They deserve to be heard."

Happening now. ⁦@greenpeaceusa⁩ activists are joining ⁦@steelworkers⁩ local 5 members who are demanding a fair contact from ⁦@Chevron⁩ who just reported record profits. #StopChevronGreed pic.twitter.com/44Y1oTrtDk

— Tefere Gebre (@Tefere_Gebre) April 29, 2022

"Fossil fuel executives and their lobbyists have maintained their dominance by pretending to have the best interest of workers and communities at heart," said Gebre. "That's why we're out here floating with fossil fuel workers. The only way we can break these companies' stranglehold on our wallets, our communities, and the planet is by standing together in the call for a livable future."

Gebre, who moved from the AFL-CIO to Greenpeace earlier this year, added that his vision "was not to exit the labor movement, but to bring the workers' movement to the climate justice movement."

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author.