diff --git a/pdelfin/beakerpipeline.py b/pdelfin/beakerpipeline.py
index 78a9110..1337c5b 100644
--- a/pdelfin/beakerpipeline.py
+++ b/pdelfin/beakerpipeline.py
@@ -512,8 +512,12 @@ def submit_beaker_job(args):
 
     task_name = f"pdelfin-{os.path.basename(args.workspace.rstrip('/'))}"
 
+    # Take out --beaker flag so the workers will just run things
     args_list = [arg for arg in sys.argv[1:] if arg != "--beaker"]
 
+    # Take out the --pdfs [arg] or --pdfs=[arg], since the queue is populated locally
+    args_list = [arg for i, arg in enumerate(args_list) if not (arg.startswith("--pdfs") or (i > 0 and args_list[i-1] == "--pdfs"))]
+
     try:
         b.secret.get(f"{owner}-WEKA_ACCESS_KEY_ID", args.beaker_workspace)
         b.secret.get(f"{owner}-WEKA_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY", args.beaker_workspace)