BP Accused of Hiring Temps for Obama Visit

A parish official in coastal Louisiana has publicly accused BP of busing in cleanup workers to be present only for President Obama’s visit on Friday. BP rejects the accusation, claiming no out-of-the-ordinary temporary hiring had taken place.

Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts said he never saw more than about 20 workers at the beach in question until Friday, when 300 to 400 were on hand as the president toured the cleanup site. Roberts says that when the president left the area, so did the workers.

Despite BP’s denials, the local sheriff’s office reported that one of the workers told them he was hired the day before and told to arrive at a “staging area” in the morning. –JCL

CNN:

A Gulf Coast official accused BP of shipping workers into Grand Isle, Louisiana, for President Barack Obama’s visit to the oil-stricken area Friday and sending them away once the president left the region.

Early Friday morning, “a number of buses brought in approximately 300 to 400 workers that had been recruited all week,” Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts told CNN’s “Situation Room.”

Roberts said the workers were offered $12 an hour to come out to the scene at Grand Isle and work in what he called a “dog and pony show.”

But, when Obama departed, so did the workers, he said, adding that he’s never seen more than 20 workers at the Grand Isle cleanup site since the effort started.

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