BP has hired hundreds of workers to help clean up the oil in Florida, but these workers are complaining that oil spill cleanup jobs in Florida are being taken by locals instead.
The workers get to Florida only to be turned away by officials who say that locals have taken over instead.
BP subcontracted the work to people in Texas, Mississippi, and Texas. The workers came to Florida thinking they would be employed for several months under BP.
Workers who traveled for miles are angered and claimed they were lied to and led to believe they would make good money aiding in the cleanup.
Among the jobs they were hired to do is scrubbing oil from the shores and laying protective boom. But these jobs have been snagged by locals instead. About 25,000 workers were called to the task.
BP and state officials apparently now think that it’s a better idea to have locals perform the work, especially considering how the Gulf coast economy has taken such as a hit as a result of the disaster. Employing locals seems like a natural result.
But the subcontracted workers claim they have contracts in hand stipulating they would be the primary workers.
In Florida, about 86% of cleanup workers are Floridians currently. These figures have nearly doubled in the last month, according to BP.
Governors of the affected states have told BP that they want residents to get first dibs on the jobs.
But out-of-state workers are angry that they were misled by BP and claim they have no legal recourse despite the contracts. And after about a week on the job, many were replaced almost immediately by locals.