Linden's mayor wants a briefing on who would answer a fire or hazardous materials emergency at the plant, and Phillips 66 says the refinery is fully staffed.
Phillips 66 has handed the Bayway Refinery in Linden to what it calls "trained and qualified management personnel" after locking out its union workers Monday, and about 120 of those workers serve as the plant's emergency responders, the union says.
The refinery's federal risk management plan, filed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2024, says the plant keeps professional emergency responders on site around the clock in its fire brigade and its hazardous materials, rescue and emergency medical teams.
Linden Mayor Derek Armstead wants to know who is covering those jobs now. On Wednesday he asked Phillips 66 to tell the city who is staffing emergency response and how the plant would handle a fire or hazardous materials release, according to a city press release.
"Public safety cannot become collateral damage in labor negotiations," Armstead said. He added that city firefighters and police should not have to cover for the refinery's own emergency teams during a labor fight.
The refinery "remains fully staffed with no reduction in roles or responsibilities," Donald Susanen, vice president of the Bayway Refinery, said in a statement to NJBallot. He said neither the refinery nor the terminal has had a reported operating problem or safety incident since the handover. The company "cannot directly respond to recent statements" raising concerns about emergency response, he said, but "any responsible discussion around this top priority should be grounded in fact rather than speculation."
The company has not said how many people are working inside the refinery or who now staffs its fire brigade.
During a 2019 contract dispute, Phillips 66 said its emergency response capability did not rest on Teamsters Local 877, the union whose members are now locked out.
"It is up to this company to do the right thing and end the lockout by coming back to the table and offering a contract that shows their hardworking employees the respect and dignity they deserve," a local union spokesperson said in a statement to NJBallot.
Union and company negotiators met Tuesday and were meeting again Thursday, the union told NJBallot. As of Thursday night, neither side had announced a result.
The lockout began when a contract extension ran out
Members gave union leaders the power to call a strike, the union announced Sept. 29, by a 92 percent margin.
Phillips 66 told employees in a Sept. 30 bulletin that it had reached a tentative agreement with the union. The bulletin said the current contract's terms would remain in place until 4 p.m. Oct. 19 to allow time for a ratification vote.
Union members voted the deal down. The extension ran out at 4 p.m. Monday, and Phillips 66 locked out 385 of the union's members, the union said.
Phillips 66 has said it acted because no further extension was in place and "to meet our commitment to safe and reliable operations."
In an Oct. 20 bulletin to employees, the company wrote that it sought an extension in the days before the vote and again right after the union reported on Oct. 16 that the vote had failed. It wrote that it asked multiple more times on Oct. 19.
"Unfortunately, the Union repeatedly refused to enter into a new contract extension or to otherwise provide the Company with the requested commitments," the bulletin said. It rejected a claim it said employees were hearing, that the lockout happened "because the Company would not sign a contract extension."
The union says the company wants to change how workers qualify
The union is pressing for better pay and benefits and dependable time off, according to its Sept. 29 release.
Local 877 also wants Phillips 66 to drop a 2025 attendance policy, the union said in its September releases. The union says the policy lets managers discipline workers, up to firing them, for missing work because they are sick.
Union members picketing Monday said they want a bigger cut of the company's profits and better work schedules. "The members want their slice of the pie," Jeff Sanford, the president of Local 877, said.
The union says some of the company's proposals "would compromise safety." New hires now train for 30 months, the union says, and it says the company wants to shorten that and lower its qualification standards.
Probation now lasts 10 months, the union says. It says the company wants to keep new hires on probation until they reach qualification milestones, which could take as many as six years.
Phillips 66 has since posted the terms of the rejected four-year deal in an Oct. 21 bulletin to employees. It lists a 4 percent raise already paid in April, raises of 3.5 percent in 2027 and 2028 and 4 percent in 2029. It also lists a one-time $2,500 payment.
Susanen said the company still wants "a mutually beneficial agreement that supports our employees, maintains Bayway's competitiveness, and positions the refinery for long-term success."
The refinery's risk plan says an operator can need as long as three years of training on the job to qualify fully.
"They're running skeleton crews, and that's our fear. Our fear for the local community," Sanford said Tuesday.
A locked-out Bayway employee who gave only his first name, Tom, had doubts of his own on the picket line Thursday. "They got management in there working extended hours. Honestly, the qualification is shaky at best and overworked," he told NJBallot.
Susanen has said the plant is fully staffed, with no cut in roles or responsibilities. The company has said the people now working at both sites, among them "supervisors, engineers and technical experts," have long experience and are fully trained to run them safely.
Managers have tried to run Bayway without its union workforce before. When workers walked off the job under Esso on Oct. 13, 1964, supervisors ran the units, according to Local 877's history.
The strike ended after 101 days. Workers returned Jan. 22, 1965, under a new 22-month contract. Some of the union's leaders at the time "insisted that the 'Strike' was really a company lock-out," the history says.
That fight involved a different owner and began as a walkout. This one began with Phillips 66 locking the workers out.
Money is still part of the argument. Phillips 66 reported $4.4 billion in companywide earnings for 2025, according to its annual report.
Its filings do not break out Bayway. The company's Atlantic Basin/Europe refining region, which includes Bayway, a refinery in Britain and a share of one in Germany, reported $402 million in income before taxes for the year.
Bayway's fuel moves by pipeline, barge and rail to East Coast customers
Bayway can process 275,000 barrels of crude oil a day, the most of any of the East Coast's eight operable refineries, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. It is one of two refineries operating in New Jersey, the agency's report shows.
The plant turns out largely transportation fuels, some petrochemical feedstocks and home heating oil, and ships them by pipeline, barge and railcar, Phillips 66 says in its annual report.
A 2021 National Renewable Energy Laboratory study found that Buckeye's Linden terminal, which took in product from area refineries including Bayway, piped jet fuel to Newark, Kennedy and LaGuardia airports.
Pump prices have not climbed so far. New Jersey's average for regular gasoline was $4.20 Thursday, down from $4.28 a week earlier, according to AAA. A year ago, it was $2.96.
After a July 2025 power outage cut Bayway's output, prices for refined products in New York Harbor rose for a short time while Phillips 66 bought replacement supply, according to news reports at the time.
State unemployment law may decide whether locked-out workers collect benefits
State law has shielded locked-out workers' unemployment benefits since 2005, as long as their union has directed them to keep working under the old contract's terms.
A 2023 update widened that protection to workers who had gone on strike before the lockout.
Workers in that position should be able to collect without a waiting period if the state's unemployment division finds the employer kept them from working and they meet the other rules, New Jersey Department of Labor guidance says.
The company's Oct. 20 bulletin says the union "repeatedly refused" to extend the contract. Local 877's public statements do not say whether it directed members to keep working under the old terms.
In other labor disputes, the law holds back benefits for the first 14 days. It pays for any of those days on which the employer uses a replacement, and it counts a current employee moved over from another job as one.
When a dispute has not stopped work, the law neither cuts off benefits nor imposes the 14-day wait.
The labor department's guidance says an employer has a stoppage of work when it falls short of 80 percent of its normal output.
The state's unemployment division makes those calls. Susanen has said there have been "no impacts" to the refinery's or the terminal's operations.
The next public marker is Oct. 28, when Phillips 66 reports its third-quarter results.
"We're hoping for a resolution to get this done. Sooner the better," Sanford said Tuesday.
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Sources
AAA, New Jersey average gas prices (accessed Oct. 22, 2026)
City of Linden, "Linden Mayor Derek Armstead Raises Serious Public Safety Concerns Over Phillips 66 Refinery Lockout, Stands with Union Workers" (Oct. 21, 2026)
International Brotherhood of Teamsters, "Phillips 66 Teamsters Overwhelmingly Authorize Strike" (Sept. 29, 2026); post on X (Oct. 19, 2026)
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, "Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Sustainable Aviation Fuel Logistics and Production Study" (October 2021)
New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, "Labor Disputes and Strikes" (accessed Oct. 20, 2026)
New Jersey Legislature, P.L.2005, c.103, unemployment benefits for locked-out workers (June 27, 2005)
New Jersey Legislature, P.L.2023, c.37, unemployment benefits for workers in labor disputes (April 24, 2023)
News 12 New Jersey, "Nearly 400 union-represented employees of Linden refinery locked out as contracts expire" (Oct. 19, 2026); "Refinery lockout could send gas prices higher across New York and New Jersey, union warns" (Oct. 20, 2026)
NJBallot, picket-line interview with a locked-out Bayway employee (Oct. 22, 2026)
Phillips 66, Bayway Negotiations Employee Information Bulletin #2 (Sept. 30, 2026)
Phillips 66, Bayway Negotiations Employee Information Bulletin #4 (Oct. 20, 2026)
Phillips 66, Bayway Negotiations Employee Information Bulletin #6 (Oct. 21, 2026)
Phillips 66, Bayway Refinery risk management plan executive summary filed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (July 3, 2024)
Phillips 66, Form 10-K annual report for 2025 (Feb. 20, 2026)
Phillips 66, fourth-quarter 2025 earnings release and supplement (Feb. 4, 2026)
Phillips 66, third-quarter 2026 results date announcement (Sept. 16, 2026)
Phillips 66, written statement to NJBallot (Oct. 20, 2026); statement from Donald Susanen, vice president, Bayway Refinery (Oct. 21, 2026)
Reuters, emergency response personnel in the Bayway contract dispute (Oct. 22, 2019); Bayway power outage (July 16, 2025); Bayway outage and New York Harbor prices (Aug. 14, 2025)
Teamsters Local 877, "Phillips 66 Teamsters to Rally for Fair Contract" (Sept. 14, 2026)
Teamsters Local 877, union history pages (2014)
Teamsters Local 877, written statement to NJBallot (Oct. 20, 2026); response to NJBallot questions (Oct. 22, 2026)
U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Refinery Capacity Report" (June 2026)
Photo: NJBallot / Jersey Alerts