It has been estimated that every 4 to 7 days the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is spewing enough crude to equal the amount that escaped the Exxon Valdez. What was British Petroleum, Transocean and Hallibuton thinking? The entire fishing industry is probably ruined for many years, the tourist industry will suffer for anything near the beach and they haven’t even begun to think about the health problems that this spill will cause.
These events took place for one reason. By all accounts, people running these operations put profits ahead of the safety of their crew and above the local economy and the environment. A little bit of union would have gone a long way on this oil rig.
But who is BP? British Petroleum was founded in 1909 as a company to explore and mine natural gas and petroleum. Although the company’s world headquarters is still in London, England they have offices and shareholders around the globe; including Huston, Texas which is the American Headquarters and is the closest to the Deepwater Horizon accident site. The major shareholders list reads like a who’s who in the money world. Their number one shareholder is J.P Morgan Chase Bank, who owns 27 and a half percent of the company. Didn’t we just pay to bail them out? Coming in at Shareholder number 22 is our other broke cousin, Goldman Sachs with the States of California and Texas not far behind. Of course British Petroleum swabs the American political deck with a ton of oil money every year with the Republican Party getting a cool 72 percent of all the oily slush money. It will be interesting to see who carries water for them during the congressional hearings. My bet is they get off cheap and you and I pay for the clean up with higher gas prices and dirty water.
These events took place for one reason. By all accounts, people running these operations put profits ahead of the safety of their crew and above the local economy and the environment. A little bit of union would have gone a long way on this oil rig.
But who is BP? British Petroleum was founded in 1909 as a company to explore and mine natural gas and petroleum. Although the company’s world headquarters is still in London, England they have offices and shareholders around the globe; including Huston, Texas which is the American Headquarters and is the closest to the Deepwater Horizon accident site. The major shareholders list reads like a who’s who in the money world. Their number one shareholder is J.P Morgan Chase Bank, who owns 27 and a half percent of the company. Didn’t we just pay to bail them out? Coming in at Shareholder number 22 is our other broke cousin, Goldman Sachs with the States of California and Texas not far behind. Of course British Petroleum swabs the American political deck with a ton of oil money every year with the Republican Party getting a cool 72 percent of all the oily slush money. It will be interesting to see who carries water for them during the congressional hearings. My bet is they get off cheap and you and I pay for the clean up with higher gas prices and dirty water.
The only thing we have going for us is a guy named Mike Williams. Mike is a well spoken, intelligent gentleman who was the electronic technician on board the Deepwater Horizon during this operation. Mike’s job was to see after the power supply that was operated by several large diesel engines. After raising safety issues, along with other workers, for several months; Mike ended up jumping 10 stories off the main deck of the rig into the ocean in the black of night and swimming through crude oil and diesel fuel to save his own life. Mike says the 11 men who were killed on the rig that night were incinerated by exploding methane gas that blew up through the main drill pipe when the blow-out protector failed.
I don’t know what would have happened differently if the crew on the rig had been union but just maybe those workers would have had a fighting chance. Mike Williams and others knew BP, Transocean and Halliburton were operating a rig that they knew had safety issues. The blow-out protector had been compromised during an earlier pressure test and when chunks of the BOP’s main gasket showed up in the drill pipe they were told to disregard what they saw. A union rep. could have taken those facts up the ladder to someone who would listen. A health and safety rep. would have probably walked his workers off in such an obvious life threatening situation.
I don’t know what would have happened differently if the crew on the rig had been union but just maybe those workers would have had a fighting chance. Mike Williams and others knew BP, Transocean and Halliburton were operating a rig that they knew had safety issues. The blow-out protector had been compromised during an earlier pressure test and when chunks of the BOP’s main gasket showed up in the drill pipe they were told to disregard what they saw. A union rep. could have taken those facts up the ladder to someone who would listen. A health and safety rep. would have probably walked his workers off in such an obvious life threatening situation.
We do build gas powered automobiles and for the foreseeable future cars will require petroleum products to operate. Oil rig jobs, like jobs in a factory can be done safely but it takes a concerted effort on the part of all parties concerned. Rushing ahead to save money usually ends up costing more in the long run and in this case the price was much higher than profit. Eleven workers did not return home. God bless the UAW.
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