A couple good articles about the CHS Laurel Refinery & State taken strong action against the serious threat of contractors using illegal aliens to work in construction sites with unlicensed & unskilled workers on work in that expose everyone in the plant to dangerous concequences due to the operating environment.
The excuse by Turner Industries was pitful and it didn’t take the State long to expose them have 79 unlicensed electricans working the site – unfortunately the fine was modest at best. Still it exposes the company for the type of operation it ran & even fined the individual master electrician who worked for Turner.
I would hope everyone take note of this company & avoid doing business with them, a couple electricians caught is oversight but 79…….pure greed and stupidity and deserves to be rewarded as such.
I am sure this issue was brought to light by the second news article about a sting operation that caught 9 illegal aliens leaving the refinery (jumping fence & running to field) when complaints were filed about out of state licenses on cars in the plant for over a year. Montana doesn’t recycle a problem & the 9 were sent to Arizona for deportation on Monday.
Bob Papin with Turner gave the same lame excuse that Bechtel, KBR and other larger firms have been dishing out for years – “there weren’t enough skilled local workers” and then use it as excuse to bring in the cheapest work force they can which often as in this case are also unskilled. But CHS workers know how cry “Bullshit” when they hear it!
But they didn’t count on the aggressive interest of the Local unions or the active involvement by the refinery workers as to what was going on in their refinery and persistant action to get it corrected. It is great example of how these types of wrongs and safety risks get corrected.
I had the good fortune to work at one of the refineries in Billings and loved the area and people (unfortunately I also had work strike duty) but I never got used to cowboys that looked like Texans but talked like people from California. And since Billings & Laurel area probably have about half the states population (once you subtract the tourist) so good paying jobs like the refinery workers end up with a good majority of the labor force having a degree in something and a lot of questions about what happens to their workplace and the environment.
Regards
