Elmer's Island Wildlife Refuge, South Louisiana, near Port Fourchon
"Cleanup workers are still getting screwed. And that was before the hookers arrived."
What a great opening. That's how Mac McClelland begins her Mother Jones' post a few days ago. You really should read it.
McClelland, pictured right, is Mother Jones' human rights reporter, and a damn good reporter. Mac has a mole inside BP's cleanup operation. Here's some of what she's learned from him:
The cleanup workers, pictured left, provided a photo-op wearing protective Tyvek suits. But workers aren't wearing those anymore. Also, the men no longer wear respirators since BP and OSHA are no longer cautious and have decided, well, they aren't absolutely necessary.
SHOULD YOU FEEL SICK -- PEE IN THE CUP
What if workers get sick, particularly without wearing any protective gear? Well, there are medics there. But, workers who ask for a medic's help are automatically drug tested, says McClelland, which for some can be a powerful incentive to not report injuries.
LOST PAYCHECKS
"Not that keeping a cleanup job necessarily equals getting paid," she adds. Her BP mole says the contractors continue to lose workers' paychecks, confirmed by local newspapers.
The only kind of air-monitoring equipment ever seen on the island are small multigas meters, designed for indoor use, that simply are not up to the job.
The BP worker, who is spilling the beans about the oil cleanup on the beaches, says that no one seems concerned about cleaning it up and are not accomplishing anything.
BRING IN THE HOOKERS
Actually, they have accomplished something -- "They've brought in prostitutes." As McClelland says in Mother Jones, no one really knows who the "they" are who brought in the pack of hookers, but they have definitely arrived and it costs $200 to buy some time with one.
"It only took someone a whole month even to figure out that it would be lucrative to sell sex to guys earning 44 hours of overtime a week and living in camps and converted 18-wheelers."
Interesting -- I haven't heard anything about hookers on any of the news networks reporting 24-7 on the oil spill.
CLICK AND READ "PELICANS VS GUSHING OIL: THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION AGAIN"
CLICK AND READ "THE OIL SPILL AND MORALITY: WHERE ARE WE GOING AS A SPECIES?"
by Sharon McEachern
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