So the poor and desperate among us will be sent to the Gulf, not given any kind of respirator (because BP used an air quality evaluator who’s famous for business-friendly findings to say they’re not needed – just like in the WTC cleanup!) and will be forced to sign releases and confidentiality agreements before they go off to destroy their lungs with carcinogenic materials.
Yep. The unemployed are so lazy, they’ll literally kill themselves to work:
In a cramped and sweaty Camden storefront church on Thursday, a group of unemployed South Jersey and Philadelphia residents gathered, not to pray, but to learn a new job skill: oil-spill cleanup.
“When you guys are down in the gulf cleaning up the big mess, we want you to work hard,” their instructor told them. “But most importantly, we want you to work safely.” Then he tossed out a scenario.
“What happens if someone gets tangled in the hooks of a containment boom and gets dragged overboard?”
Hands shot up, solutions were discussed, and class continued.
For the nearly two dozen men and one woman piled into New Light Church of God, part of Hope Community Outreach Center in Whitman Park, it was the fourth day of Hazardous Waste Worker Training.
The free, 40-hour course is part of a federally funded University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey program to help local unemployed workers land jobs in the Gulf of Mexico oil-spill-response effort.
With a $50,000 stimulus grant, UMDNJ has offered public-health job courses at Hope Community since January, in areas such as asbestos removal and construction-site safety.
The first students were recommended by directors of area outreach centers and churches. Those interested in the training also may contact the community center.
The hazardous-waste class just happened to coincide with the BP oil disaster, said Mitchel Rosen of UMDNJ’s School of Public Health.
Sylvester Servance, 61, program director at Hope Community, has been lining up jobs with a Phoenixville subcontractor that needs workers who have the mandated Occupational Safety and Health Administration training.
Details are being finalized, but students are likely to head to beaches and boats somewhere in the gulf by mid-July, Servance said. Pay will be $18 to $25 an hour, and the work is guaranteed for eight months, he said
There is a 26-person waiting list for August’s course, he said.
And yes, there are actually those who would claim it is the “right” of these desperate people to assume any risk they want — even though, of course, everyone’s being very careful to give them the impression there’s not much risk at all.
Welcome to the oligarchy! Please take your assigned seats…
Even if we are going to allow people to take dangerous jobs (such as cleaning up crude-oil-toxins without respirators), we ought to make sure that there is full disclosure of the dangers.