Phillips 66 locked out 385 process and mechanical workers at its Bayway Refinery in Linden at 4 p.m. Monday, shutting out more than half the plant's workforce after union members rejected the company's latest contract offer. The company says it will keep the refinery running using non-union management, engineers, and technical personnel, while the union warns the move could put nearby communities at risk.
Lockout Follows Rejected Contract and Strike Vote
The lockout took effect immediately after a short-term contract extension expired, according to News 12 Westchester. It came weeks after Teamsters Local 877 members authorized a strike by a 92 percent margin in late September, according to a statement carried by PR Newswire. The union says the rejected proposals would have cut new-worker training time from 30 months and stretched employee probationary periods to as long as six years instead of the standard 10 months. Management implemented a 2025 Absence Control Policy that permits discipline, up to termination, for illness-related absences, per the same release.
Workers at the Linden site have been represented by Teamsters Local 877 since 1960, according to background compiled on Wikipedia. The 385 locked-out workers represent more than 55 percent of the roughly 695 people employed at the facility, that entry notes.
Union Raises Safety Concerns Over Non-Union Staffing
Local 877 President Jeff Sanford warned that running the refinery with non-union “skeleton crews” poses risks to the surrounding community, pointing out that the union workers who staff Bayway's specialized emergency response teams are among those currently locked out, according to News 12 New Jersey. The station reported there were no signs overnight that either side had moved closer to resolution, with bargaining scheduled to resume Tuesday morning.
According to Daily Voice, union leaders also warned the dispute could push gasoline prices higher for drivers across the Northeast, with Sanford anticipating the standoff will fuel regional supply concerns. The outlet reports Bayway is one of only two refineries in New Jersey and supplies fuel to major airports, including Newark Liberty International Airport, as well as the Buckeye Pipeline system. The Teamsters have said their members play a critical role in keeping the refinery operating safely.
Why Bayway's Output Matters Beyond Linden
The scale of Bayway's operations helps explain why a labor dispute there reverberates far past Union County. Bayway has gasoline-production capacity of 145,000 barrels per day, earning it the industry nickname “The Gasoline Machine” for supplying roughly half of all gasoline consumed in New Jersey, according to background from Phillips 66. The company's materials also note Bayway produces up to 775 million pounds of polypropylene plastics annually and supplies jet fuel to Newark Liberty International Airport. Daily Voice separately reports that Sanford described the refinery's polypropylene plant as one of only a few facilities of its kind within roughly 500 miles.
Originally built by Standard Oil in 1909 on 1,235 acres in Linden, Bayway's 275,000-barrel-per-day capacity makes it a significant share of an already thin regional supply chain. Nationally, operable refining capacity has fallen by more than 250,000 barrels per day to 18.2 million barrels per calendar day between January 1, 2025, and January 1, 2026, following permanent closures of major refineries in Los Angeles and Houston, the agency's data shows, leaving less cushion to absorb regional disruptions like the one unfolding in Linden.
Bargaining Remains Unresolved
For now, the Linden dispute remains unresolved, with bargaining set to continue and union leaders maintaining that effects could extend well beyond the refinery's gates to drivers throughout the Northeast.
