HEADLINE: Cleanup workers describe conditions as "beyond bad"

[Bluebear]

GRAND ISLE, LA (WAFB) - Beach cleanup workers along the Louisiana coast are blowing the whistle on what they call "beyond bad conditions."

For weeks, reporters have been trying to talk to the folks on the front lines cleaning the beaches. The majority of the time they will not talk on camera for fear of losing their job, but on Wednesday two workers said they are fed up.

In the blazing hot sun with an odor of oil so strong you can almost taste it, hundreds of cleanup workers spend hours a day on Grand Isle's famous beaches...

"A guy passed out on the beach literally with sand in his eyes, ears and nose and the people around him were laughing, even the bosses," said cleanup worker number one. "There was about to be a big fight."

A man who identified himself on the phone as a manager at Ashland told 9NEWS to "leave him alone" and hung up. A man at the Ashland headquarters on the island told 9NEWS he had "no comment," and asked us to leave.

"All we're doing is raking seaweed. I would like to get out there and actually help with the wildlife and the marsh and major areas of it. They have us just working on the beach. When we went to scoop up some oil yesterday they told us, ‘don't scoop up the oil...just rake the seaweed'," said cleanup worker number two.

On Wednesday afternoon BP said they had no official comment, but would look into the issue.

http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=12662634

[EFerrari]

1. What a f#cking farce.

[Bluebear]

12. No other word for it.

[LeftyFingerPop]

2. Oh Christ. K&R. n/t

[leftstreet]

3. Disgusting n/t

[donco6]

4. At some point, people are going to realize there's a lot more of us than them.

What's it gonna take?

[EFerrari]

6. Maybe that's what the mercs are for.n/t

[donco6]

7. Maybe all that Southern NRA support wasn't such a bad idea.

<is Agent Mike still around?>

[EFerrari]

8. I don't think he is. He probably couldn't stand Bev, either.

lol

[Bluebear]

10. !!

Oh no you dint :)

[Bluebear]

9. .

[sandnsea]

5. Yeah, oil soaked seaweed

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=oil+clean+seaweed&rlz=1R2ADFA_enUS354&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=CM5hjr5EZTLGuLKX4Mdrq-ecKAAAAqgQFT9Ao7Ak

The breathing equipment and poor treatment of workers needs attention. But people can't think that there's only one part to cleaning up this mess.

[Bluebear]

11. kick