Worker-Manager Disputes Cited in Refinery Blast

Independent consultants reviewing safety at Tosco Corp.’s Avon oil refinery, where a blast killed four people in February, said in a draft report that worker-supervisor disputes impaired safety at the site.

The report, prepared by Arthur D. Little for Contra Costa County Health Services, said an adversarial relationship between workers and their managers had impeded communication at the plant.

“Safety communications up and down the ranks frequently break down or get blocked, resulting in different interpretations of the importance of safety,” the report said. “As a result, the Tosco safety message is not clearly and universally understood.”

Four men died in a Feb. 23 fire at the Avon refinery in Martinez, about 25 miles north of San Francisco. The refinery is closed.

Spokesman David Kory said Tosco would not decide Avon’s future until the presentation Tuesday of a final report from the consultants. “We understand there could be some changes because [the report] is not final yet,” he added, declining to comment on the safety report draft.

A union representative said disputes between workers and supervisors were not generalized between the union and management, and that the consultants had said they would clarify the nature of the problems in the final draft.

“From our experience, it is not organization-related but individual relationships between workers and their bosses,” said Jim Payne, secretary-treasurer of the local Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers Union.