Tag Archives: barkway

Here I was, minding my own bloggy little beeswax, when out of the blue, I got an e-mail from someone who will be referred to as “boricua1968″. He was a safety officer for the BP oil disaster clean-up operations and has quite a story to tell.

He provided me with documentation of everything he chronicled to me, but unfortunately, it’s too much to post here. Trust me when I tell you there are pages and pages of forms, photos, slide shows, certificates, you name it.

Boricua1968 actually taught the training class that Barkway, another excellent source of mine, has referred to. He found me via The Google:

I just googled ‘fake HAZWOPER certificates’ to see if anybody had done a story about it and your blog was one of the results.  I agreed with what you had already written and decided to reach out to you.

I will now let him do the talking:

I can provide proof of fake HAZWOPER certificates and e-mails from my company regarding our loss of per diem and reduction in wages if you would like to see them.

I was a Safety Officer for the spill cleanup operations at Port Fourchon, LA and for boom operations and cleanup stationed on a barge in the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet off of Hopedale, LA. Like one of your readers stated, the smart people left when the pay reductions came around.  I left for that reason and the inability to procure safety equipment for the workers.

I was a Lead Safety Officer at Port Fourchon, LA operations and on a barge with a boom maintenance flotilla out of Hopedale, LA.  Out of at least 500 laborers that I oversaw, very few actually knew how to don PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) such as a Tyvek suit (one of the most basic PPE’s for this line of work) yet every single one of them claimed to hold HAZWOPER certifications.  The majority of them were Hispanic workers hired by a staffing agency called ‘The Tamara Group’ which is contracted to a company called ‘Oil Mop’.  On the barge, hardly anybody even knew what a Tyvek suit was much less how to put it on to protect themselves properly.  (This ‘donning’ and ‘doffing’ is a substantial part of HAZWOPER training).

One time, I had a need to see the HAZWOPER certifications for a certain group of employees and the Tamara Group refused to send me copies of them.  Eventually, Oil Mop provided me the copies that Tamara had sent to them and I noticed that the certificates were not properly formatted, didn’t include the instructor’s license number or contact information, and had the word ‘occupation’ misspelled. It was a very poorly made computer-generated certificate that made me immediately suspicious.  I asked the persons to whom the certificate was issued about their training and they advised me that they had only had a brief (couple of hours) orientation provided by the female owner of the staffing agency.  I asked them questions about specific training modules required to be taught in the HAZWOPER class and NONE of them had any idea what I was talking about.  I can send you a couple of these certificates… [He did]

I was told not to question the lack of training of these individuals and one of the upper management responded by saying, “So what, oil isn’t that toxic and they are getting the job done anyway.”

On the barge, workers were discouraged from reporting accidents and injuries and there was a concern about TB at one time so I offered to have PPD tests done on everybody but I was told not to make that request because they did not want to alarm anybody on-shore that there may be a potential problem if it turned out to be nothing.  All HAZWOPER workers are supposed to have a complete physical before being assigned to work but none of them had even visited a doctor prior to being stationed on the barge.

We were told many times (from my initial orientation in Mobile, AL to daily briefings in Port Fourchon, LA) that if we ever spoke to ANY reporter from any media outlet, we would be fired on the spot.  We were prohibited from taking photos although I took thousands once I got to the point that I didn’t care if they caught me or not.

On the barge, we were supposed to be paid for a 24 hour day but that was reduced to a maximum of 16 hours on July 1^st (they actually made it retroactive to June 24^th and I had to fight to get the pay until the day of our notification).  On Sunday, July 4^th around 5:00 pm, we received an e-mail stating that we would no longer receive any per diem but that certain expenses would be covered if receipts and records were properly kept. These two events reduced our income by about 50%.  Later, the allowable reimbursements were so restricted that hardly anything was going to be reimbursed.  When I complained, my boss sent me an e-mail stating that the scope of this project was big enough to be considered a ‘resume builder’ and that I should, basically, be grateful to be working on it.

We could not get gloves, insect repellent, sunscreen, proper footwear, etc. on the barge and many PPE had to be shared or re-used.

I have a video of sharks feeding on the bodies of some of the victims of the Deepwater Horizon disaster…that was never released to the public and the families were never informed of the ghastly probability.

Here is that video:

We were not evacuated during the threat of Hurricane Alex but when the smaller TD Bonnie came through, the ENTIRE Gulf of Mexico was evacuated.  When we left on July 22^nd, there was a shitload of oil out there…when we came back on the following Monday, there was nothing.  I can’t say, with authority, what happened to it but the rumors abounded that there were some heavy duty dispersant applications over the weekend when there were no witnesses out on the waters.  Many said that it was more than a coincidence that an American was named as head of BP that same week.

I also have pictures of a baby pelican that was oil soaked and rescued by us [see further down the post]…upper management ordered us to take it to an island near the boat and let it go…they did not want to deal with the paperwork of having to report the distressed wildlife.

…

I am listening to the radio interview of ‘Martha’ [Barkway] and the PEC training that she had to go through.  I had a higher level of that training but actually taught the training class that she is talking about.  I can send you the slide show for that training. [He did]  I asked for the test for that training and was told, via e-mail, to make up my own questions and to strive to pass EVERYBODY.

E-mail from boricua1968 on June 22, 2010, to that effect:

Good Morning,

I received the packet for the Module 2 training which has the instructions for registering the participants, the printout of the Module 2 PowerPoint presentation, and the student answer forms with the temporary cards.  However, it did not have the test anywhere in the package.  Could you e-mail me a copy of the test so that I can go ahead and give the class?

Here’s the response:

There is no formal test for Module 2 other than what you would like to do.

Moving on:

The risks are minimized and these were not readily available to the workers regardless…especially the Hispanic workers that were not provided copies in Spanish.

[T]here is nothing substantial in that training…it is basically an ‘overview’ and MIGHT be considered an introduction to a more detail oriented course to prepare workers for the toxins that they may encounter.  Anyway, it shows that ‘Martha’ [Barkway] was right about it being just a PR show that BP is concerned for the worker’s safety.

[M]inimal training was provided after the workers had been there for a couple of months.

Here are the suspect certificates…notice how ‘Occupational’ is misspelled. [It was spelled with one "C"] Compare those to mine. [He provided me with several certificates, including his own]

[I]t is illegal to provide certificates to people that have not received adequate training.  There have been several people arrested for this same thing after Katrina.

And about those illnesses we hear so much about:

I had some concerns about a ‘sickness’ that was going around on the boat and myself and a colleague are still plagued with an upper respiratory infection and we believe it came from that project…I was concerned that some of the workers may not know how to go about determining that and remembered that most of them had not had a complete HAZWOPER training.

This next part struck me:

Truth be known, I am a Conservative and usually vote Republican but right is right and wrong is wrong. They have exposed these workers to some serious health issues and contracted companies who charged a high price per hour while only paying $10-$12/hr to the immigrants. In the interest of full disclosure, I was making $18.00/hr at a minimum of 16 hour days, 7 days a week, and was originally given a $160.00/day per diem on top of that.  These workers on the barge never received a per diem and were only paid for 12 hour days while the workers on the ‘beach’ received $20.00/day per diem and the rest was pocketed by the staffing agencies or contractors.

[W]e were not allowed to share even minimal amount of information [about personal protective equipment] with the workers.

He then shared a more personal story regarding stress management:

Supervisors and up would take naps during the day (myself included) and we would jokingly refer to these as stress naps.  We were not allowed to distribute this memo to the workers (who were not allowed to be below deck or in their bunks during working/standby hours) and were not even allowed to mention stress naps to anybody other than management.  Remember, I was not a direct supervisor so I had no say in what the workers should be doing during hours that they were being paid but I can guarantee you that anybody in a Supervisory position or above took naps while the workers were not allowed to.

I feel bad but, I had the opportunity to take naps and I took advantage of it…I was tired of being there anyway and I wasn’t going to be a champion of workers’ rights and lose any advantages that I had.  I hope that doesn’t make me appear to be a ‘monster’. [It doesn't]

Remember how compassionate BP spokespeople are in those genuinely heartfelt commercials that are airing now? Yeahnotsomuch. Oh, and patriotism? Fugetaboutit:

And an AMERICAN FLAG!!! They wouldn’t even provide us with one.  I bought the flags that you will see in the video with my own money.  BP and its contractors would not supply them to fly above the vessels.

Speaking of compassion:

Here is the oil covered bird that we were told to take to an island and set free instead of calling Wildlife officials:

Re: Paranoia, firings, blackballing:

..I was asking to get a copy of my OSHA 10 and 30 Hour certifications.  They did not want to release these certifications to anybody for the stated reason of a suspicion that the person may go to work for another company but, more than likely, they were concerned about the legitimacy of these certificates and didn’t want them floating around (I have never worked for a company that withheld certificates of its employees’ accomplishments).  This particular e-mail also demonstrates the fragile nature of employment on the BP project where people were threatened with being fired and ‘blackballed’ for any small reason. [I have a copy of the e-mail]

As of June 24th, the worst oil disaster in U.S. history was no longer considered to be an emergency:

This is an e-mail showing that our pay would be reduced by 8 hours per day apparently because BP no longer considered this to be an ‘emergency’ as of June 24^th, 2010 while the oil was still gushing full blast into the Gulf. [I have a copy of the e-mail]

And here are a few more grenades he threw my way:

E-mail indicating the exodus of trained safety supervisors due to working conditions and being managed by inexperienced personnel.  One company actually started replacing trained employees with untrained family members. [I have a copy of the e-mail]

E-mail indicating that we were supposed keep a lid on any problems that may arise. [I have a copy of the e-mail]

This is the Site Safety Plan…notice on the next to the last page it requires that all workers submit to a medical examination prior to being deployed.  Not a single one of us had an examination. [I have a copy of the plan]

They didn’t want us to fail anybody…on the back of the instructor sheet it actually says: “I, the instructor, agree that any and all questions skipped or answered incorrectly by the student have been reviewed and that the correct answer has been written in the space provided.”

Objective: Fraud, abuse, & profit.