BP yesterday faced angry protesters – including Louisiana fishermen, Canadian Indians opposed to Tar Sands, and locked out UK construction workers – at its first annual general meeting since the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Fishermen representing Louisiana Gulf communities were refused entry into the AGM.
Byron Encalade, president of the Louisiana Oystermen Association, told reporters: ‘We’ve had no money, no interim payments.
‘We lost everything after the spill. We had good faith that BP were going to make our communities whole, but they’ve gone down the wrong road.
‘All we’re asking for is to rehabilitate our oyster beds. Give us what was promised us.
‘I don’t know why we’re not welcome here.’ He warned BP, ‘You can’t think you can do this and get away with it.
‘We’re going to keep the pressure on BP. The quicker we can get funds, the quicker we can recover.’
Locked-out Hull rigger and Unite branch chairman, Bob Webster was with work colleagues outside the AGM.
He told News Line: ‘Vivergo is a diluted version of BP, Tate and Lyle and Dupont producing ethanol fuel off the plant that we were building.
‘They pulled the contract, with no consultation, no redundancy notice, effectively putting 400 men out of work.
‘There is no redundancy money as we are not officially made redundant. This is a lock-out but we haven’t been told that. This happened around six weeks ago.
‘At present there are no prospects of getting a TUPE contract back onto the job. We don’t know who the new contractors will be.
‘If there is no resolution in the next 38 hours, we are taking it to national level, involving all construction workers throughout the country, for moral and financial support.
‘We’re asking for more than that if we don’t get it resolved, i.e. a stoppage.
‘We have a meeting on Monday with national shop stewards and the union hierarchy.’
