Workers at Lyondell's closing Houston refinery fear 'starting over' - Houston Chronicle

Workers at Lyondell's closing Houston refinery fear 'starting over'

Anthony Emanuel has worked at LyondellBasell’s Houston refinery on the ship channel for nearly 10 years, earning him a day job that functions outside the seniority-based shift work that rules the lives of many refinery workers.

Emanuel, 38, said knows he should be looking for a new job to safeguard his family against the plant’s impending closure, but he is still recovering from the shock of his wife’s death from cancer last year. A new job would also mean surrendering the favorable schedule he has earned through seniority at the plant — a schedule that allows him to work while his 6- and 9-year-old children are in school and frees him up early enough to spend time with them at night.