Oil clean-up crews: little training and pay, long-term hazards

[suffragette]

A pattern is emerging of conditions for the people engaged in clean-up and it looks appalling, for now and for the future:

First noticed the $10 an hour rate when I read the Mother Jones article Bluebear posted:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=8407170#8408349

http://motherjones.com/environment/2010/05/oil-spill-bp-grand-isle-beach?page=2

I've corralled Irvin Lipp, who drives me and a few wire photographers out to Elmer's. (He tells me ruefully that he has history with Mother Jones, having once been a flack for Dupont.) The shoreline is packed with men in hats and gumboots and bright blue or white shirts. Nearly all are African-American, all hired from around New Orleans. They tell me they've been standing in these exact same spots for three days. It's breathtakingly hot. They rake the oil and sand into big piles; other workers collect the piles into big plastic bags, and still other workers take them to a plant where the sand is separated out and sent to a hazardous-waste dump and the oil goes on for processing. Then the tide comes in with more oil and everybody starts all over again. Ten dollars an hour. Twelve hours a day. When I joke with one worker that he should pocket the solid gobs of oil he's digging up to show me how far beneath the sand they go, he stops dead and asks me if BP's still trying to use the oil they all collect. "Aw, I knew it!" he says. Another leans on his rake to ask me, "Have they at least shut the oil off yet?" He randomly picks three spots in a three-foot-wide expanse of sand that he's already raked clean and drops his rake in an inch deeper to show me how the oil bubbles up from underneath. He can't count how many times he's raked this same spot in the 33 hours he's worked it since Thursday, but one thing he's sure of, he says, is that he'll be standing right here tomorrow and the next day, too.

Then noticed conditions here. Kerchiefs as their safety equipment? Doesn't sound like enough to me:

http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2010/bp_info_blackout

Three workers who had gathered in the shade under the marina’s closed restaurant took off their hard hats and wiped sweat from their brows with the kerchiefs that had covered their mouths and noses. When asked if they had been pulling dead fish from the bayou, one said, “What do you think that smells like? You bet it’s fish.”

When asked who they were working for, none could say with certainty. “I know we are getting paid by somebody, but whether it’s BP, Halliburton or the government – I don’t know,” said another. “But they all have plenty of orders to give,” he said, noting that he was three quarters of the way through a 12 hour shift.

All of the workers had been brought in from states other than Louisiana, and all spoke with Bellona Web on the condition that their names not be used.

Searched around and found an excellent article that brings together information and links here. Well worth reading in entirety:

http://www.indypendent.org/2010/05/25/bp-oil-spill-clean-up-plans-fail-to-address-health-issues/

The USA Today article also points out that it’s difficult to learn from past catastrophes, like the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, because health information is often “sequestered,” or kept private because of court settlements. Weise quotes a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official who says, “The people who got sickest and won against Exxon got settlements that required that the records be sealed.”

Grossman reports that though the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) are involved, they are working in partnership with the polluter. She quotes a NIEHS official who says about such a partnership: “I don’t think that has ever happened before.”

Grossman continues, “Among the many challenges to worker safety are the exemptions from hazardous waste operations and emergency response (HAZWOPER) standards OSHA allowed during the Exxon Valdez response – exemptions BP is now operating under. Standard HAZWOPER training is 40 hours; the exemption allows a 4-hour course.”

Searched on $10 hour cleanup and found job postings.
But hey, they're providing that big 4-hour course “at no charge” - so generous of them:

http://www.postjobfree.com/Job.aspx?id=78998dff200947e880384549495d23df

Oil Spill Clean up
Posted by:Command Center
Posted date: 5/8/2010
Job type: Full-time
Salary: $10/hour
Company Name: Command Center
Country: United States
State: Alabama
City: Mobile
ZIP: 36603


Job Description:
We need over 5000 people to help clean up the oil spill in the Gulf.
We are providing a 4 hour oil spill certification class at no charge; this is required to be able to work in the oil spill clean up.
If you want to work 12 hour days/ 7 days a week and get paid overtime....
please call 509-474-1010 or e-mail [e-mail]

And it looks like Command Center is increasing its profits too:

Command Center Announces Revenue of $5.8 Million for the Month of May
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Command-Center-Announces-bw-1528393832.html?x=0&.v=1

Press Release Source: Command Center, Inc. On Thursday May 27, 2010, 9:00 am EDT
POST FALLS, Idaho--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Command Center, Inc. (OTCBB:CCNI - News), an emerging provider of on-demand, reliable labor solutions, today announced revenue of $5.8 million for the four-week reporting period of May 2010. This is an increase of more than 46 percent over the revenue of $3.9 million recorded in May 2009.
~~~
This past month,” said Command’s Chairman and CEO, Glenn Welstad, “our rapid-response program, Command-on-Demand, has qualified, trained and deployed hundreds of workers daily in Tennessee and along the Gulf Coast for disaster relief programs in those areas. While this was a major factor contributing to the significant increase in sales in May, we also saw improvement in sales system-wide. Our business outlook for 2010 continues to improve as our opportunities widen.”
Mr. Welstad added that job orders in response to clean-up efforts in Tennessee flood areas have begun to decrease, but the company continues to send out an average of 600 workers daily along the Gulf Coast, and “that number will significantly increase if oil clean-up efforts in the area intensify.”
Since the beginning of the oil spill, Command-on-Demand has trained and Hazmat-certified over 2000 Mississippi and Alabama residents. Training and certification programs are expected to continue in those states for the foreseeable future, and possibly expand into Louisiana.

And now we’re learning prison labor is being deployed as clean-up crews. Doubt they’re even being provided with the minimal safety training and wages given to the other people.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4403085
Prisoners hired in oil relief efforts, trained for hazardous materials work


Some enlightening info from the investigative article by Elizabeth Grossman that ties this together. Note; some of this is also referenced in the Indy piece above:


http://thepumphandle.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/are-gulf-coast-responders-being-protected/

While virtually every federal agency is involved in the response, BP is the incident’s responsible party. “BP is in control,” explains Chip Hughes, director of NIEHS Worker Education Training Program who accompanied Assistant Secretary Michaels on his trip to the Gulf. Hughes and colleagues have been working with OSHA, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and BP to establish response worker health and safety training on site. Working like this in tandem with a responsible party – i.e., the polluter – “I don’t think has ever happened before,” said Hughes at the May 13 meeting of the National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences (NAEHS) Council.
“We don’t think adequate protection is being provided to workers but we think that it will be,” said Hughes.

Dermatitis and inhalation of oil and dispersant chemicals are a concern. “We hope people have gloves,” said Hughes on the 13th.
What the occupational and environmental health specialists want to help avert are long term health damages. Among the concerns raised by Hughes and other members of the NAEHS Council, including NIEHS director Linda Birnbaum, is the need for medical surveillance for response workers and community residents – which would help identify any adverse health effects sooner rather than later. Another is that thus far there are no mental health care provisions for responders or community members.

So, yet again BP is “in control” and we have a picture emerging of hiring and training outsourced to firms conducting minimal training and providing minimal wages for labor with serious short and long-term safety ramifications while our agencies “don’t think” adequate safeguards are there but “hope” minimal safety gear is at least being used.

[suffragette]

1. 6 recs and no comments

So, I'll kick it myself.

[JoeyT]

2. It's the new American way, I guess.

No one seems to know who's actually hiring anyone. Everyone is being hired by/through scummy staffing companies that won't give any details until the people are already at the location. And the further the people have to travel to the job the happier they are: It makes it less likely they'll turn around and go home when they find out they were lied to about the pay, the hours, and the work.

[laughingliberal]

3. +1 nt

[suffragette]

4. Great point

And people desperate for a job will accept the situation.

And some of these people are likely wanting to help alleviate the damage done by BP as well.

[Karenina]

5. and the health risks...

[suffragette]

6. Update: "U.S. fears BP cleanup workers imperiled"

"U.S. fears BP cleanup workers imperiled"

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2011988142_oilhealth30.html

Federal regulators complained in an internal memo about "significant deficiencies" in BP's handling of the safety of oil-spill workers and asked the Coast Guard to help pressure the company to address a litany of concerns.

"The organizational systems that BP currently has in place, particularly those related to worker safety and health training, protective equipment, and site monitoring, are not adequate for the current situation or the projected increase in cleanup operations," Michaels wrote.

Worker-safety advocates said the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) should be doing more. Most workers are getting only the minimum hazardous-material training required, which is four hours.

Jordan Barab, deputy assistant secretary of labor for Occupational Safety and Health, said OSHA doesn't think cleanup workers needed more extensive training.




Glad to see they're starting to address the issue, though I think they need to be more forceful and apply higher standards.






Good article from HuffPo bringing in historical perspective:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/riki-ott/human-health-tragedy-in-t_b_582655.html
As someone who witnessed the Exxon Valdez disaster, I saw this same charade unfold 20 years ago in Prince William Sound-and the result was literally thousands of sick cleanup workers who thought they had "the Valdez Crud," or simple colds and flu. Instead Exxon likely dismissed injured workers - and its own responsibility/liability to take care of these people - using an exemption for reporting "colds and flu" in hazardous waste cleanup regulations. 29 CFR (1904.5(b)(2)(viii)

The response to the BP leak is starting to look an awful lot like what happened during the Exxon Valdez cleanup. BP is not a self-regulated company, but it sure is acting like one.

The federal agencies responsible for monitoring public health and worker safety need to take aggressive action to prevent human tragedy. EPA should do continuous monitoring of air quality across the oil-impacted Gulf states--rather than only in communities where the oil is coming ashore--and EPA should post all the data it collects. It is public information and the people have a right to know about a toxic menace in their communities. If air quality continues to exceed public safety standards, the federal government has an obligation to act to evacuate people-just as it would in response to a hurricane, except at BP's expense.

Further, the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSHA) officials should be monitoring BP's worker-safety program. OSHA has a responsibility to order BP to take steps to figure out why workers are getting sick and to order BP to take immediate preventative action. This is all supposed to be part of BP's worker-safety program and it's up to the federal government to make sure BP's plan works in practice as stated on paper.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

7. BiggestPolluters won't allow respirators, as this would incur greater awareness of the toxicity and

increase their liability. This was reported here, but I can't find the link...

[suffragette]

8. Amy Goodman reported on that in her interview with Clint Guidry

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/5/27/coast_guard_grounds_ships_involved_in

JUAN GONZALEZ: In Louisiana, seven fishermen involved in the cleanup of the BP oil spill were hospitalized on Wednesday after reporting nausea, dizziness, headaches and chest pains. The crew members were working aboard three separate vessels. The fishermen were likely exposed to both the leaked oil and chemical dispersants. As a precautionary measure, the Unified Command has ordered all 125 commercial ships helping with the cleanup in Breton Sound, Louisiana to return to land.
For weeks, cleanup crews hired by BP have been reporting health issues, but their complaints have largely been ignored. As recently as Tuesday, BP spokesperson Graham MacEwen told the Los Angeles Times he was unaware of any health complaints among cleanup workers. BP has refused to provide respirators to many hired fishermen, and the company has reportedly threatened to fire workers who use their own respirators on the job.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined now in New Orleans by Clint Guidry, president of the Louisiana Shrimp Association. He’s a third-generation shrimp fisherman.
This is Democracy Now! We welcome you to the studios of Democracy Now!, though we’re speaking to you in New Orleans. Tell us what’s happening, Clint.
CLINT GUIDRY: Well, good morning. Thanks for having me.
This is a situation that has been ongoing for several weeks now. Having had prior training and experience working with the oil and the chemicals in oil and their danger——several of the fishermen out on the worksite, they were complaining of burning eyes and strong smells. And my experience told me that they were getting exposed to dangerous chemicals—the benzenes, all the light ends off the crude—and this Corexit is a new experience for me. I have been doing some research. It contains a substance called 2-butoxyethanol, up to 60 percent by volume, which is a very, very dangerous chemical. I don’t have a lot of experience with it, but just doing the research. And I knew that they spraying this chemical in the same area where my fishermen were working. And I have brought this to light. I have tried to make public. As a matter of fact, just a couple of days ago, three days ago, I met with a Washington delegation in Galliano and expressed my concerns that this was happening.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Now, Clint Guidry, what about OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration? Aren’t they supposed to be monitoring worksites that involve US companies, even if they’re offshore?
CLINT GUIDRY: I’m not sure about that, but I’m understanding it’s MMS and US Coast Guard in this situation.
AMY GOODMAN: What about respirators? Are people wearing respirators?
CLINT GUIDRY: No, ma’am. Having had prior experience, I know these people. They’re friends. They’re family. I bought respirators, and I brought them down to these people. And when they tried to wear them, the BP representatives on site told them that it wasn’t a dangerous situation, and they didn’t need to wear them, and if they did, they would be taken off the job.
AMY GOODMAN: If they wore respirators, they’d be taken off the job?
CLINT GUIDRY: Yes.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

9. No one wants to talk about this. It's too criminal.

[suffragette]

13. Exactly

[chill_wind]

10. Bookmarking

and thank you for the thread organizing this important info, suffragette.

[suffragette]

12. Thanks chill_wind

I try.

[UTUSN]

11. Sounds like a job for the Undocumenteds if there ever were one. n/t