Union Rallies Against Patriot Environmental Over Labor Disputes

SAN PEDRO, California — The ILWU Local 56 Shipscalers Union escalated its campaign against Patriot Environmental Services on June 13, with a rally in front of the APM Terminal at the Port of Los Angeles. The union alleges that the company and its parent company, Crystal Clean LLC, have engaged in anti-labor practices.

ILWU Local 56 members, who are specially trained to handle hazardous materials, are typically hired for cleanup and environmental remediation work at ports and industrial sites. The union maintains a collective bargaining agreement with Patriot Environmental Services (PES), but claims the company has repeatedly violated it by denying members job opportunities at ports and other locations.

“We have been fighting for a fair contract for five years,” said ILWU Local 56 President Albert Ramirez. “We are asking the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to stand with environmental and hazmat workers in our demand that Patriot Environmental and their parent company, Crystal Clean, respect our current contract and meet industry standards.”

Ramirez added that Local 56 members provide essential services to the harbor community and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, cleaning up hazardous waste and environmental hazards.

The union is demanding parity with other union signatories that have contracts with similar firms and insists that Patriot Environmental respect its members. “In the end,” the union said in a statement, “the employer is harming our members and their families.”

State Assembly candidate Shannon Ruiz Ross joined union leaders and workers at the June 13 rally in a show of solidarity.

In February 2025, PES was hired by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a subcontractor for Phase 1 hazardous materials removal during the wildfire cleanup in Altadena, Eaton and Pacific Palisades.

The company also has federal contracts. In 2022, PES was awarded a blanket purchase agreement by the U.S. Air Force’s 412th Civil Engineer Group for spill response and cleanup services. The agreement, valued at up to $2 million, runs through Dec. 30, 2026. So far, $70,600 has been obligated.

PES was also deployed in 2024 to respond to an oil spill from a ruptured pipeline in Wilmington that released about 8,000 gallons of produced water and crude oil into a storm drain and port waters. The company set up a 1,200-foot boom, conducted high-pressure washing and sorbent cleanup, removed oiled vegetation and debris, and completed cleanup by Feb. 12, 2024.

In 2022, Heritage-Crystal Clean Inc. acquired Patriot Environmental Services. Crystal Clean provides parts cleaning, oil re-refining and hazardous and nonhazardous waste services to small and mid-sized businesses.

Crystal Clean is also named in a class-action lawsuit originally filed in California in 2015. The suit alleges the company failed to pay wages for on-call standby time, manipulated start and stop times, underreported labor, and denied legally mandated meal and rest breaks.

In a written statement, Ramirez said the National Labor Relations Board has always been a tool for workers to build power, but emphasized that it is not the only means for resolving labor disputes. The union continues to demand that both Patriot Environmental and Crystal Clean meet industry labor standards.