Louisiana fishermen bitter over BP job handouts

[imurhuckleberry]

Source: LATimes

Reporting from St. Bernard Parish, La.
There's good money to be made by grounded fishermen hired by BP to protect the Louisiana shoreline from the massive oil sneaking toward its marshes and beaches. But just who gets the job is a source of brewing tensions.

Every day, hundreds of fishermen pile onto boats to lay reels of white and orange booms. In St. Bernard Parish, a crew member can make $36 an hour and a captain can make $46, plus $650 a day for the use of their boats. And that tally makes David Palmer, a 33-year-old fisherman with three kids, hopping mad.

"It's so messed up it's not even funny," said Palmer, a fisherman here whose turn to earn that money doesn't come until next month. "A person can't wait 30 to 40 days to go work."

Fishermen across the gulf have seen their livelihoods dry up since the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon. The number of fishermen affected could reach into the tens of thousands in Louisiana alone — there were 11,191 commercial fishing permits issued in the state in 2009. Each license represents a captain and about 2.5 deckhands, said George Barisich, president of the United Commercial Fishermen's Assn.

But the ocean-faring containment jobs are not plentiful enough to help people such as Palmer, who sat in the shade underneath his yellow house, which is hoisted on pylons in the swampy grasses of St. Bernard Parish. Two of his friends, Oliver Rudesill and Donny Smith, complain they haven't gotten a cent either and are seething watching others earn hundreds of dollars a day.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-spill-fishermen-20100513,0,3877000.story

[Scuba]

1. Can't imagine why they're bitter.

[Igel]

6. Except that "bitter"

usually doesn't involve comparing yourself and what you're getting with what others are getting.

There are better words for that. It's just that they're considered vices held by the person with those feelings, not the result of victimization and abuse. Oni -- politicheski nepravil'ny. Assuming the correct politika, of course, which is de rigueur.

[roguevalley]

8. that's smart, rile up the people who can sue your ass off. BP,

a dimwit's dimwit.

[jpak]

2. the government should do something

the Big Obama Socialist Gummint

yup!

[eilen]

3. I guess they can file some grievances at the

fisherman's union regarding work sharing. Oh wait.

[SocialistLez]

5. +1 NT

[madmax]

4. A few days ago I read a post here

that BP was using prisoners and the Coast Guard to do clean up. Sure, free labor.

[Uncle Joe]

7. This is only the beginning, and the adverse reverberations will stretch far beyond the Gulf Region.

:(

Thanks for the thread, imurhuckleberry.