Jackson Free Press

BP officials announced improvements to make the company's Vessels of Opportunities program more efficient and incorporate more regional employees, during a media briefing Wednesday.

The Vessels of Opportunities program focuses on hiring local commercial and charter-fishing vessels and crews to respond to the oil disaster in an attempt to minimize the impact on local communities, people, the environment and the fishing industry.

Yesterday, U.S. Department of Labor officials traveled to the Mississippi Gulf Coast where they met with fishermen who are out of work because of the oil. Mississippi Public Broadcasting reported that several fishermen expressed frustration with finding a job through the Vessels of Opportunity Program.

David Meaux, a BP representative based in Biloxi, told reporters during the briefing that the company's attempts at primarily hiring locals has been "relatively successful."

"In a few cases, we have had a few out-of-town people come in as part of the fleet. But through the continuous improvement program in our fleet, that's going away," Meaux said to reporters. "We are really focusing on making it a very localized operation."

While BP attempts to localize the cleaning effort through the Vessels of Opportunities program, Mississippi Rep. Brandon Jones, D-Pascagoula, says the company still needs to improve their hiring practices when it comes to other essential jobs for the project.

Jones said he has seen a positive reaction from his constituents about BP's effort through the Vessels of Opportunities program, but he still sees a problem with BP hiring employees for related products and services.

"Early on there was a lot going wrong with that part of the process," Jones told the Jackson Free Press Wednesday. "But as BP has recognized some of their errors and has started to make some adjustments to these programs, we are starting to see a little bit better response."

Jones said hiring locals reaches beyond the Vessels of Opportunities program because BP also has to hire a variety of other people for jobs such as providing food, water and vehicles for the clean-up effort.

"It involves a lot more than just the on-water people," Jones said. "...There were some people here in my city, Pascagoula, who were hired to provide water, for example, that were bumped out of the program by a company from North Alabama. We're working now with BP trying to ensure that that type of thing does not happen."

Jones said if BP wants the local communities to support their work and feel pleased with their response, it is important to include Mississippians in the hiring process in the best way possible by looking to locals when hiring vendors and other necessary jobs.

"It may cost them a little bit of money in the short term to do all of their hiring locally," said Jones. "But I believe that in the long-term, they'll see a great return on that investment because they will be making more local people happy with their response."