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A demonstration outside the gates of Richmond’s ChevronTexaco refinery Tuesday morning ended in a massive police turnout, two arrests and conflicting reports about what happened. 

Even Lt. Mark Gagan, spokesperson for the Richmond Police Department, wasn’t quite sure who did what to whom. Dean O’Hair, spokesperson for the refinery, said he wasn’t sure either. 

“The more time goes by, the less I know,” O’Hair said. “We do know there were some picketers and the Richmond police worked to keep the roadway clear.” 

Conflicting news accounts haven’t helped, including one that described the event as a “melee,” a label strongly disputed by two union members interviewed for this story. 

The pickets, including both union members and community activists, were protesting the arrival of a large contingent of out-of-state workers, many non-union, who had arrived at the refinery as part of a major maintenance program. 

At least 30 police cars were on hand at one point during the morning, including officers from Albany, El Cerrito and the California Highway Patrol. 

Greg Feere, president of the Contra Costa Building and Trades Council, said he witnessed the arrest of Tom Baca, president of Local 549 of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers. 

“Tom had been in the hospital for kidney stones and he’d had four units of blood, and I asked him what he was doing out here. He was there only 10 or 15 minutes, and he said he didn’t feel good and was going home,” Feere said. 

Baca’s car was on the other side of Richmond Parkway, and when he started to cross with the green light and the walk light, Feere said, a cop told him he couldn’t cross. 

“The cop said he’d arrest him, but he said he had to go home and started to cross,” Feere said. “The cop told him ‘Fuck you,’ and when he started to cross, he was arrested. It was totally outrageous.” 

Lt. Gagan said Baca was charged with section 148 of the California Penal code, which covers “obstructing, resisting and delaying an officer” in the performance of his or her duties. 

The second suspect was arrested on suspicion of vandalism, possibly from an incident where an arriving contract worker swung at a picketer who Feere said “may have brushed his car, and the picketer allegedly booted his car” in return. 

Feere’s account was corroborated by another member of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 342 who also witnessed Baca’s arrest. 

Don Gosney, vice president of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 342, said his members are angry that the oil giant was bringing in non-union contract workers, many from Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, to do work that Contra Costa County union members could do just as well or better. 

“The only qualification they have is that they’re willing to work for a lot less money and do whatever the company tells them to do,” Gosney said. 

O’Hair disagreed. “What we want and what elected officials and members of the community want, is that we hire the right workers,” he said.  

“We have hired both local and out of state workers, and the companies that do this kind of work are concentrated where a lot of the facilities are, which is along the Gulf Coast,” he said. “Our preference is to hire locally, but sometimes we can’t.” 

Feere charged that the contract employees are paid between $7.50 and $21 an hour, lower than union wage scales. Contract workers also don’t receive pension and health care benefits, Feere said, “so if anything happens to them, they have to go to county facilities, and we taxpayers end up paying for it.” 

Union members and community activists charge that Sgt. Joe Silva aggravated an already tense situation by his conduct on the scene, including his arrest of Baca. 

Andres Soto, a Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA) activist and one-time City Council candidate, encouraged union members to make complaints to the Richmond Police Commission. 

City Council and RPA member Gayle McLaughlin also voiced her disapproval of Silva, who ordered that the cars of protesters be ticketed and towed. 

McLaughlin said she first learned of the planned picket over the weekend, when she received a flyer from a group calling itself the Concerned Citizens of West Contra Costa County, which had called for the demonstration to protest “the outsourcing of 1,000 local jobs to non-union, out-of-state, out-of-area workers.” 

The protest began before 6 a.m., and after the demonstrators dispersed, officers were back for the evening shift change, but no demonstrators appeared. They were back again Wednesday morning, but again, all was quiet. 

The refinery is both Richmond’s largest employer and the focus of many residents’ concerns and fears.Ã