Resentment grows over out-of-town Gulf oil workers

[SoCalDem]

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66K5Z620100721?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a49:g43:r3:c0.100000:b35875566:z0



By Alexandria Sage

FORT JACKSON | Wed Jul 21, 2010 4:24pm EDT

FORT JACKSON Louisiana (Reuters) - The oil clean-up crews descend from the yellow school buses each evening, dirty and exhausted, their vests flapping in the hot breeze.

They're returning after a 12-hour shift to their temporary home here in southeast Louisiana, a vast, mostly-male worker complex that's part army barracks and part summer camp. "They are the people going out in the boats, going out to the beaches," said camp operations manager Lee Abbott. "That's the people who are staying here." The problem is that many are not local and are coming in from other U.S. states. That's causing friction in this otherwise welcoming enclave, where the nice salaries paid to these workers and a perception of laziness have angered residents struggling to make ends meet.

Locals have complained about the issue all along the Gulf of Mexico coast, where British energy company BP Plc has hired temporary workers to fight its oil spill both on and off shore. "If you ain't got no inside connections, you're in trouble," said Louie Barthelemy of Empire, Louisiana. His white rubber boots, or "Cajun Reeboks," identified him as a shrimper -- now without a livelihood after the spill. BP's "Vessels of Opportunity" program was set up to hire the boats of local fishermen and others out of work since authorities closed much of the Gulf waters to fishing in the wake of the spill that began in April.

Barthelemy, who has spent his entire life on these waters, said he has seen out-of-towners run aground or waste precious time getting lost in the complex Louisiana bayou. Said Cuong Tran, a shrimper who has yet to be called: "I don't know what's going on. My name is still on the list. We don't get income. It's really difficult for us."

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