Tag Archives: BP

Millennial Corps of Workers

4 Jun

Calling for greater participation by young people in setting the tone of the debate of American politics, Timothy Egan in his column in today’s New York Times stumbled upon a great idea: expand the existing national service programs (AmeriCorps, Teach for America) to clean up the gulf.

Obama could rouse this generation to help save the oil-choked gulf, much the way Franklin Roosevelt did with his youthful Civilian Conservation Corps.  While still holding BP accountable, the president could set up a millennial corps of workers, calling on their sense of service, their desire for change, their youthful belief in restoration.

Young voters put President Obama in the White House, both by working on his campaign and by overwhelmingly supporting him at the polls.  And they still support him.  But since the election, they have not been reached out to.  They community teams that the Obama for America campaign created never turned into strong civic engagement groups.  Young workers still want to give back, still believe in government, they just haven’t been asked to help out.  Creating a new national service program to clean up the oil spill and work on other environmental programs would, first of all, employ thousands of young workers.  It would also expose those workers to the skills they need for the future economy – engineering and technological skills in many cases, health care and veterinary care in some other cases.  Additionally, it could and should be paid for by BP – they wrecked the place, they should have to pay to put it back together.  And as no small side benefit, it will help the environment.

This is a win all the way around.  How much you want to bet it doesn’t happen?

Forgotten 11

28 May

With President Obama rightly accepting responsibility for assuming BP could handle the clean-up of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the news focus has been and continues to be the failure to plug the well.  Those who have been forgotten are the 11 crew members who died during the explosion – an explosion that occurred because BP and Transocean were anxious to make profits regardless of the risks.  Last week, Transocean held a moving, but conflicting memorial service for the workers in Jackson, Mississippi.  As Mary Burkeen, the mother of late crew member Dale Burkeen, told Diana Sawyer, “I’m going there to honor my son, that’s the only reason. If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t go because I think they’re doing it for a show. I don’t think it’s coming from their heart.”

But other than that the government’s response and the media’s response as been insulting at best.  It is the greed of these large corporations that is literally killing workers.  Where is the outrage?

Unsurprisingly, BP is cutting corners again with ensuring the health and safety of the clean-up workers.  Many of the folks cleaning up the Gulf are ending up in hospitals because of the Corexit, the dispersant, BP has them using, and dehydration.  New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-8) said during a Congressional hearing that the chemicals being used “could result in thousands and thousands of people getting sick or dying as a result of the cleanup, not of the original disaster.”

We do not need another disaster caused by greed.  The President should apologize for the failure of his administration to ensure the safety of the Deepwater Horizon workers, the administrations failure to properly acknowledge the families’ loses, and the failure to ensure the health of those cleaning up the Gulf.  Then he should do something about it.

Corporate Obfuscation while Workers Die

11 May

On Capitol Hill today, in two separate hearings, oil executives pointed the finger at one another to avoid the blame for explosion at the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico in which 11 workers died, 2 were injured, and unmeasurable environmental damage occurred, ending all fishing business in the area for a longtime to come. The New York Times reports:

Lamar McKay, president and chairman of BP America, said that the mechanism known as a blowout preventer, which is meant to seal the well and shut off the flow of oil in case of an emergency, failed to do so. Since Transocean owned the rig’s safety equipment, Mr. McKay said that Transocean was responsible; he added that there were “anomalous pressure test readings” before the explosion that “could have raised concerns.”

For his part, the chief executive of Transocean, Steven Newman, wondered whether there had been adequate testing of the cement and the casing process that was in progress at the well when the accident occurred. The president of Halliburton, Tim Probert, in turn said that BP directed his company’s activities at the site.

“I would suggest to all three of you that we are all in this together,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska admonished them.

Pointing fingers and distracting the public from their malfeasance should not be just the cost of doing business for these executives.  Congress is right to hold their feet to the fire.  No worker should have to take their life in their hands to get a good paying, blue collar job.

This is part of the crisis facing young workers, their three job opportunities are: low-skill, low-wage job; skilled, decent-pay, dangerous job; or high education, high-pay job.  The options shouldn’t be so stark and dangerousness should not be part of the calculation.

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