C50

0s [SPEAKER_02]
I'm a member of local five forty nine.

14s [SPEAKER_00]
I currently live in Tracy.

16s I just bought a house out that way, but I'm originally from Oakland, California.

20s [SPEAKER_01]
Can I have you take a baby step this way?

32s All right.

34s All right, can we get that line again?

38s [SPEAKER_00]
Name, where you live, and your local.

39s My name is Lucille Cedeno Reyes.

41s I'm a member of Local Five Forty-Nine.

44s Graduated apprentice, by the way.

47s And I am a local.

49s I live in, well, I'm from Oakland, California.

52s I currently live in Tracy, though.

57s [SPEAKER_01]
What do you do in the refinery?

59s [SPEAKER_00]
I am a Boilermaker in the refinery.

62s I do everything from shutdowns to maintenance.

67s In the past year I've gone back and forth from both and this is what I've been doing for the past ten years.

76s What did you do before this?

76s Before this I drove trucks for FedEx.

79s I loaded the dogs and then got a Class A driver's license.

83s I drove trucks for a while.

86s Do you like this job?

89s everything about it.

90s It's opened a lot of doors for me.

92s It's created a lot of opportunities for me and my family.

96s It changed my life, really.

98s And that's what I like about this job.

103s It changed my life because I was able to create more opportunities as far as wealth and for my family, generational wealth in the sense of being able to provide and get the things that not only they need but things that they like as well.

119s So it's made things a little easier.

122s [SPEAKER_02]
Absolutely.

128s [SPEAKER_00]
Absolutely.

129s I can say that

132s just the time that I've applied myself to showing up and working and learning the work is what led me to be able to create that opportunity for myself.

145s So we make a substantial amount of money by the hour, which

153s allows us to do things that we enjoy doing with our families and for our families.

158s So it's not only for me, but everything I do is mostly to create comfort for my family.

168s [SPEAKER_02]
Can you just say for me, this refinery

172s [SPEAKER_00]
Yes, this refinery job has allowed me to buy a house.

176s Well, the Boilermaker career in general, because whether we work at a power plant, at a shipyard, in the refineries, all the local refineries and all the work that we have, it creates that opportunity for us.

192s [SPEAKER_02]
Have you heard about and talked about the future of California?

196s [SPEAKER_00]
I have heard some things are good, some things are bad.

202s Like, from what I understand, the environmentalist people don't really approve of refineries.

209s But I think if they informed themselves a lot more of what is actually going on in refineries, they would be able to understand that it's not as bad as it seems.

220s Of course, when something bad happens, like a refinery blows up,

223s That's when you get to see all the smoke and everything that's not good.

227s But other than that, it's not as bad as it seems.

234s Absolutely.

236s I am a firm believer that not only for the purpose of generating fuel, but

245s There's a lot of people employed here.

247s I can't even count how many people not only depend on coming here, but the future of all the skilled trades that we have in place have a job here.

263s They do.

264s They do.

265s I think that not everybody has the same opportunity in life.

270s So some people are more skilled in the form that doing things by hand and learning a trade sometimes pay off more than going to college.

281s I have friends that have gone to college and every time I see them, my life keeps changing and evolving ever since I graduated.

288s And I don't want to say they're stagnant,

290s but their life hasn't been able to change as much as mine have.

294s And they ask me, what do I do?

295s And when I tell them, it's like, are you sure?

299s Yes, I'm sure.

301s I remember, funny thing, my first job in the refinery, I didn't get to cash none of my checks.

308s I saved all those checks and when I went to the bank,

311s The person that helped me and I said, I need to cash these checks.

314s She couldn't believe what I did for a living.

317s So she called her manager and I, till this day, I still remember that.

320s And that was ten years ago now.

323s So, yes, it's changed my life.

325s It's helped me in many ways.

327s And when I see, I don't want to say a kid because I'm not that old, but when I see people younger than me and I talk to them about, I don't tell them exactly just the Boilermakers because this is not for everybody.

339s But there is something for you out there if you're looking into a skill trade.

343s there's many doors that you could get yourself involved and create a better future for yourself because it's not something that everybody's doing.

350s But once they learn it, there's great opportunity out there.

356s Absolutely.

357s I'm driving and I show my kids, you know how you go through the Bay Area and you can see the columns and I show them like, hey, I was there on that job.

365s Hey, you see the steam coming out of that thing?

368s I work there.

368s And they're like, oh, there go dad's job right here.

372s So I do feel proud of what I do because

377s It's a great feeling to be able to show and tell what I do.

382s Because explaining it to somebody that doesn't understand what happens in a refinery, you're confusing.

388s But it is a great thing.

397s Yes.

402s I don't.

405s I don't.

406s Not personally, I don't.

408s But... To families?

414s It could be...

416s It could be the end of something and the beginning of something else, because I heard once that the skill and train will be fine.

424s So it could be bad in the sense of there might not be work in that particular place anymore, but that's the reason why we are involved with our union hall and pay dues.

435s take the classes and go through the training so that you're always sharp and able to work as there is many other refineries that you could go into or whatever it is that the trade offers for you like power plant work and you can always travel so that's the great thing about being part of an organization that is this big you can always take your talent somewhere else do you think that refineries are good for the community

464s In what sense?

467s Absolutely.

469s There is not only skill trade, but there is many other things.

475s Inside the refinery, you can get hired directly through Chevron and do something that you learn how to do here, just like it is for any other trade.

483s What do you think happens to the community with Chevron?

494s Okay, now I'm going to ask you just to repeat some lines, okay?

529s , say that again.

529s [SPEAKER_02]
We keep your commute affordable.

531s [SPEAKER_00]
We keep your commute affordable.

535s We keep your commute affordable.

538s We keep your commute affordable.

543s [SPEAKER_02]
We make it better and cleaner in California.

546s [SPEAKER_00]
We make it better and cleaner in California.

554s Keep our jobs in California.

558s [SPEAKER_02]
When a California refinery closes, every family pays for it.

572s I forgot to ask you a question.

575s I'll go back to the questions in a second.

578s The governor and some politicians are talking about that we should just be importing fuel in California, you know, from the Middle East, from Venezuela, from places like that, to find fuel.

590s Clearly it's a crazy time in the Middle East right now.

593s Do you have any feelings on that?

597s [SPEAKER_00]
If we import a fuel, it'll take our jobs away.

601s So why import it when you could keep the people that are from here in California busy with work?

606s It'll just be kind of like a slap in the face to everybody that takes pride in what they do and what we do in these refineries.

615s [SPEAKER_02]
Okay, this line was split into two.

620s So the whole line is if more refineries close, we will lose thousands of jobs.

625s [SPEAKER_01]
We did the one before once this thing was a little...

628s Yeah, I know.

632s [SPEAKER_02]
Can you say that, what you said before about why would we do that?

638s Why would we import fuel when we can do it here?

643s [SPEAKER_00]
I can't remember everything I just said.

647s But basically, why would we import fuel when we got people here that can benefit from the work and getting it done here in California where the refineries are?

657s That would be like a slap in the face to the people that went through the trades and keep themselves skilled and come to work every day and look forward to doing this.

670s [SPEAKER_02]
Okay, now here's the one.

672s If more refineries close, we'll lose thousands of jobs.

676s [SPEAKER_00]
If more refineries close, we'll lose thousands of jobs.

680s [SPEAKER_02]
How will California make up these losses?

689s How will California make up these losses?

706s [SPEAKER_01]
That must be, this must be a great mic.

727s [SPEAKER_00]
Picks up that far away.

729s [SPEAKER_01]
I power California.

738s Perfect.