Laid off from Valero.

What Valero layoffs have meant for employees

Valero has explained each of these plant decisions by the plant's own circumstances, its costs, its market or the rules it ran under. Valero tied its decision to shut Delaware City to financial losses, significant capital spending requirements and high operating costs in a November 2009 release, and it described the Jefferson County idling, in words BizTimes quoted, as expected to be indefinite unless market conditions significantly improved. For Benicia, Valero's 10-K impairment note points to California legislation that brought potential new operating restrictions and reporting requirements, and to the "considerable uncertainty" and potential adverse effects that followed for its operations and financial performance in the state.

The Benicia layoffs were a small share of the company, about 3% of the 8,182 U.S. employees counted at year-end in Valero's 2025 10-K, but they were set to reach about 68% of the refinery's staff. The same impairment note says Valero wrote down its Wilmington refinery alongside Benicia and continues to evaluate strategic alternatives for its remaining California operations. If you work at Wilmington, that line covers your refinery, and the Houston Chronicle reported in January 2026 that Wilmington would continue operating. As for Benicia, the plan in Valero's second-quarter 10-Q is to maintain the refinery's permits and keep its idled facilities in safe, clean condition while the company evaluates potential redevelopment options, and to keep supplying Northern California customers through imports or other arrangements.

The help Valero described for Benicia's staff came from the company. Valero said in its January announcement, the Chronicle reported, that employees were being given the opportunity to transfer to another company location and offered outplacement assistance, while the refinery's manager wrote to city officials, "We do not plan to coordinate services with the local workforce development board or any other entity." If Valero offers you a transfer, the new site's pay, the cost of relocating and its shift schedule are worth comparing. If you'd rather leave, Valero also named outplacement assistance.

At Delaware City, the first notice wasn't the last. Valero issued a WARN notice on September 14, 2009 covering layoffs of some employees, and two months later it told workers the entire refinery would close on January 22, 2010, a 2010 Labor Department release recounts. The September cut was partial, and the November decision took in the whole plant.

Delaware City and the Jefferson, Wisconsin ethanol plant both appear on Valero's history page as later divested, in 2010 and 2022. At Delaware City, the same Labor Department release said Delaware City Refining Company LLC had purchased the refinery and that on-the-job training would prepare some former Valero workers for its new processes and equipment. The remaining affected workers were to get skills assessments meant to steer them toward training for other local industries, with services that could include career counseling paid for by a federal grant run through the Delaware Department of Labor.

In our WARN filing tracker, Valero's own notices carry the names Valero Refining Company, for Benicia, and Valero Services Inc., for the Wisconsin plant, while the two Illinois closings appear under Premcor's names, from years before Valero owned Premcor. Those two count toward Valero's total under our ownership rule, since The Premcor Refining Group Inc., which filed them, appears on Valero's fiscal 2025 subsidiary list. If you worked at Benicia, California's own claim process is explained under California unemployment benefits, and if you're weighing retraining, there's more about it under retraining after a layoff.

A sourced history of Valero layoffs

• January 2026, Benicia refinery layoff notice

  Valero told California and local officials it expected to permanently idle Benicia's operating units and lay off 237 of the plant's 348 employees between March 15 and July 1, a notice the Houston Chronicle covered and California's WARN report dates January 13.

• April 2025, plan to stop refining at Benicia announced

  Valero's Benicia subsidiary told the California Energy Commission it intended to idle, restructure or cease refining operations at the refinery by the end of April 2026, Valero said in an April 16 filing.

• October 2021, Jefferson County ethanol plant layoffs

  Valero told officials it planned to lay off 61 of the 68 employees at its idled ethanol plant in Jefferson County, Wisconsin between October 15 and December 6, according to BizTimes, and Valero's history page marks the plant divested in 2022.

• November 2009, Delaware City refinery shutdown

  Valero announced in a November 20 release that it would permanently shut down the Delaware City refinery, affecting about 550 employees, and immediately open negotiations with the refinery's unions over the closing's effects and the employees' severance packages.

• January 2001 and February 2002, Premcor Illinois closure decisions

  Premcor's refining unit, which came to Valero in 2005 per Valero's history page, closed its Blue Island refinery in January 2001 and on February 28, 2002 announced an October closing for the Hartford plant; both Illinois notices, Hartford's dated March, are in our WARN tracker.

What to do if you're laid off from Valero

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Valero's biggest hubs: California. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Valero's hub states run: California, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.