Oil cleanup workers protest ‘flotel’ housing

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100721/bs_yblog_upshot/oil-cleanup-workers-protest-flotel-housing

Oil cleanup workers protest ‘flotel’ housing

One of the logistical difficulties in combating the Gulf oil disaster has been finding housing for the thousands of workers brought in by BP and its contractors to work on cleanup and containment operations. Many of the coastal communities, especially in oil-soaked Louisiana, are sparsely populated and don't have the ability to accommodate a sudden influx of people. Enter "flotels."

Many workers have been housed in floating hotel/motels — structures similar to trailers or shipping containers stacked on top of each other on a barge.

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"We're on strike, so we're not going to work," Jules Dag told WDSU, an NBC affiliate in New Orleans. "I'm not living on no quarterboat," Dag said. "When I signed up, the agreement was we lived at a motel or somewhere they supplied us to live."

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"We ain't been paid yet," Dag said. "We've used almost everything we got to live out here already. Forty days, we ain't seen nothing yet. What we supposed to do for money?"

One worker compared the living conditions to jail, saying, "If I wanted to be in prison, I would break the law and go to jail." Privacy is scant, typically limited to little more than a retractable curtain, with common areas for showers, eating and leisure activities. The flotels are powered by generators, with each pod holding 12 bunks. The close quarters made another worker concerned about disease.


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Those flotels look like jails on barges.

maybe if they would call the shots instead of reacting and lurching further right with every decision, we would stand a fighting chance......

the housing issue, if there are no hotels/motels, there are no hotels/motels. If that part of Louisiana is anything like the Maryland shore away from the tourist areas, there is going to be a major shortage of hotels/motels to put people.
I suppose they could charter a cruise ship or two, presuming any are available.

pathetic!

they should be paid for 24/7.
8 hours at regular wage and then time and a half for every hour over fourty.