Big Oil Using Foreign Labor at 1/2 Min. Wage on Gulf Rigs
Tue Aug 05, 2008 at 06:01:05 PM PDT
Business Week has an article about a scheme concocted by US oil companies working in the Gulf of Mexico to replace American workers making $18/hr with foreign workers making as little as $3.33/hr for 12 hour shifts. Former oil rig workers have now filed a lawsuit in a Texas federal court to reclaim wages they claim were lost due to the practice.
Johnson's suit, Cunningham, et al v. Offshore Specialty Fabricators, Inc. et al, was filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas, Texarkana Div. in December 2004. On July 21 the judge issued a scheduling order that calls for both sides to begin discovery and depositions on Aug. 10.
The case is about working conditions for both U.S. and non-U.S. workers, says plaintiff's attorney Tony Buzbee of Buzbee Law Firm in Galveston, Tex. The foreign workers "were paid pennies on the dollar, worked grueling hours for days on end, and were essentially captives on the rigs because they were paid when repatriated," says Buzbee. "This suit seeks remedy for the American workers who were paid less due to wage market suppression or who lost their jobs due to being replaced."
Given that offshore drilling has become such a huge subject in the ongoing presidential campaign, it's something of a mystery to me how this story hasn't received wider coverage. With the exception of a fleeting article posted on Business Week's website, there has been no coverage of this by the mainstream media.
Let's be clear, the oil fields in which these rigs are located are in US territorial waters. And it's not like we're talking about someone going down to the local Home Depot to get these guys.
The elaborate scheme involved in getting these guys to the rigs begins with staffing companies that recruit from the Iban people of Sarawak.
The recruited workers were taken to the U.S. embassy in their home countries, where they told the embassy that they would work on foreign-flagged vessels. That would place them outside the requirements of U.S. labor and immigration laws. The staffing firm then flew the workers to Houston or another Gulf-area location, Ireland said, where it informed customs that the workers were going to work for foreign vessels offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. After clearing customs, they would then be picked up by a shipping agent, taken to a shore-based helicopter base, and then to vessels offshore....
Once aboard the vessels, the workers are paid 20%-40% of what a U.S. worker such as Johnson would earn, says the plaintiff's attorney. For example, Jenggi Kaloum, an Iban worker for Stolt Offshore referenced in the 2005 Ireland deposition, was paid $40 per 12-hour day, while an American worker would make $200 or more per day for the same work. Kaloum could not be reached for comment. Once offshore, the workers can remain on vessels for 150 days in a row, earning no overtime, says Buzbee. He says the workers are paid only when they return to their home countries with money routed by the staffing firm.
This is what American workers were put into competition with. Workers under the absolute control of the company, who can't complain because they have no one to go to to ask that their rights be respected. And the Oil companies did this in order to slash labor costs, putting many American workers into the unemployment line and supressing wages for those that remained on the rigs.
And remember these are the very same offshore oil rigs that are supposed to be the silver bullet to bring down oil prices.
But at what cost?
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