The Alyeska COWITTS in COWARDS

Editor’s Note: This BLOG is dedicated to the “cause & effect” of an inept and incompetent and impotent management style the company that guaranteed to the U.S. Congress…well shameless lies. That company - the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company - was designated as the “caretaker” of the Alaskan oil scene, for safely transporting that precious commodity that makes our “motor gasoline” and boils our water for morning coffee. Yes, that “safely” was quarantined to the grave because of greed and thus the ugly sin of the EXXON Valdez “WRECK” is here to stay for a long, long time. Yes, all the blame the unprecedented “WRECK” contributed to a company that satisfied instead a “shoot the messenger” mental mindset ego, instead of taking care of a few “bad apples”. Alyeska could have STOPPED Joe Hazelwood “dead in his tracks” and this environmental disaster avoided, yes by exercising a preferential treatment, as not all tanker crews abused that “Free-for-All Free-at-Last Furlough” when a ship was tied up and loading up with crude oil at the TAPS Valdez Marine Terminal. Instead, Alyeska’s recipe for disaster called for apple sauce - smashing away the opposition to hell with the “bad apples”. I am talking the “workers” in solidarity so attacked as the “bad hombres” as that was fashionable - as going after the “bad apples” trampled on the Trans-Alaska-Pipeline’s “Owner Company” rights to be let alone, and to condone that action to target the “guilty” it amounted to character assignation and could be reasons for dismissal reaction. You don’t mess with the hand that feeds! George Nelson was the epitome of a “bully” and on that dreaded day in March of 1989, he showed his true colors, a limp noddle a wimp poodle! Funny it was when the other George Nelson of British Petroleum ridiculed Alyeska’s Nelson, because the U.S. Coast Guard had closed the “Port of Valdez” so no tanker traffic was allowed to move - it meant $money$ loses. Alyeska was a consortium of the most powerful oil conglomerates in existence, best mind your P’s & Q’s as to get permission for any consideration that affected the “Owners”, it required outside direction and to get the “Owners” to coordinate an answer like how to deal with tanker crews “drinking” during “shore leave”, forget about any answer. Even the “designated agents” that maintained the ship’s logs and had the privilege to visit a tanker’s galley before “ship off” and observe the crew’s demeanor and maybe get a hit of “vodka breath”, they stayed clear of this well-known “few bad apples” abortion on seamanship ethics. All around, they did not give a rat’s ass and this was apparent only 48-hours into the “wreck”, the hell with the overboard oil killing thousands of shore-birds get the damn port opened as we are loosing $money$. The only way such abuse could be STOPPED by those thinking getting behind the controls in the wheelhouse of a humongous vessel filled with “toxicity” a little pie-eyed, that such malfeasance was daring, deny shore access to the crews - that simple it was. But now you are talking a very difficult legal issue - unless you pay the steel-hull incarcerated victims, as this is America so when not on the clock…look the crews chose this career so stay in your freak’n bunk and watch porn. The crews were off the clock, they could come and go as they pleased, but Alyeska maintained the “keys” to that privilege and could have easily put the foot down. That 1400-foot “Causeway” between the tanker’s gang-plank and “land ahoy” was an easy target - and it was “RESTRICTED ACCESS” to begin with. I worked for the company and my duties often required access to that “Causeway”, but never without “Permission” - like a “Permit” and radio contact before entry as the berths held “oil” and explosive atmospheres. The tanker crews had more freedom then the workers, as it was a turn a blind-eye, even when they urinated off the berths! Yes, this was a simple thing to address. It didn’t budge the management, as that would have interfered with the “Owner Company”. The crews returning from “shore leave”, the condition of the Able-Bodied seamen was well known about, said again a small fraction required time-and-time again to being carried up the gang-plank to the sober up ward. This was a time before hi-tech invaded and gave us cameras 24/7, to bad! There was a terrible weakness in the “shore leave policy”, and thus came the EXXON Valdez wreck. But those of us so concerned about this “behavior” unbecoming a seaman, we tried and were screwed over. Like in Sympathy for the Devil: “Just as every cop is a criminal ~ And all the sinners saints ~ As heads is tails ~ Just call me Lucifer 'Cause I'm in need of some restraint.” When the local management did nothing, the only recourse was to seek “Union” representation. This tanker crew abuse started the day the Daily News went to print with “Oil In”, in 1977. So the workers mobilized, seeking an outside representation with “Labor Department” clout, that would provide a ways and means to address the dereliction of the company in keeping the workers safe and sound and the same with the environment. When the 1st “UNION” drive of 1979 was history and the Alyeska lawyers were successful in that “squash” the opposition, that was only Phase I of the plan of attack. It would be only a matter of time before another concerted effort “UNION” drive would disrupt the Corporate keepsake of “No Unions”. And that “Corporate” sentiment was not just in Alyeska’s selfish interest, it was dictated by the “Owner Companies”, like SOHIO-British Petroleum and ARCO all the “Big Players” considered under the umbrella of the “Seven Sisters”. Amerada Hess was the only neutral faction. There came a full-court press, to detain any “Union” activity. At the time, other “Unions” were trying to gain favor up on the North Slope, so we are talking a 10000-man workforce that if “Unionized” could wield a whole lot of clout - especially sensational it could shut-down the pipeline that was essential to this nation’s energy supply. And that “shutdown” scare, it didn’t require an entire workforce, as a small group of Instrument & Electrical Technicians in Valdez alone had the wherewithal to sabotage the “Owner Companies” profit stream. Yes, a handful of knowledgeable technicians at the “Marine Terminal” could wreck havoc, not intentionally but with a simple “sick out”, as the control systems through lack of maintenance and attention lacking would demonstrate this TAPS beast at “The END” was not capable of “lights on” without that I&E faction. Amazing, that a handful of labor activists exercising their Constitutional “Rights” could have such control. So came to fruition the plan of attack by Alyeska’s management, use that proverbial “solution to pollution is dilution”. It’s an oil company, that works! Which meant a plan that would take apart the department lead by the “Hoss”, distribute the technicians to one of the 4-operating departments at the “Terminal” and then it would become very difficult to get the required votes to even consider a “Union”, as now all the employees of each department get to vote in consideration of a “Union” representation. Let the break-up begin, and Alyeska was very successful in fucking up a good thing when at the same time, well the Hazelwoods continued to come and go with no accountability - Alyeska took the focus off of the PROBLEM based on the fact one too many jerks more concerned what the “Owner Companies” were preaching. See, the company’s Bragaw Street mentality - the 5^th Floor more likely to succeed as the “Filth Floor of Bragaw” - it gave not a rat’s ass about an environmental disaster in Prince William Sound - let bygones be bygones the sentiment even today some 30-years after the “Wreck” when 11-million gallons went overboard within 35-minutes of “ground zero hard aground”. Waves of crude oil boiled out of the breached hull of the EXXON Valdez like a Tsunani, as when you don’t obey the “speed limits”, you end up with 30-foot long gashes in the shell. This was not a “bumper car” jolt a little off course, it was a massive undertaking to destroy a 2-year old pride and joy of the EXXON fleet. Yes, only 1400-feet separated safe fate to disaster and with “boys will be boys” the ship was reprogrammed on a crash course at full throttle, upon the worst of the worse best known navigational hazards in the “Sound”, a sunken reef that peeled away the hull like a sardine can under attack by famished Captain Cook pirates. There was no excuse there is no excuse, and the George Nelsons that knew about this problem along with the Ivan Henmans and all the rest of the idiots, better yet “Cowitts” that were told about this misfitting bellicose, you’re dead but so is the “SOUND”. Like financial gains are allowed as an inheritance, so should environmental atrocities be passed on as an “inheritance” and the people leftover, the sons and daughters standing in line for a giveaway, how about instead of $money$ how about hand cuffs and sentencing to “hard time labor” cleaning up the mess that lingers still. It was a “Cowittly” mindset that allowed the wreck to occur, and instead of taking care of business target those that stood up for the rights in “righteousness”. Many of the Alyeska “Executives” that were aware of this “Tanker Crew” abuse but instead engaged in attacking the workers bent on the “Union”, many are 6-feet under and I am so sorry that before passing on they had not the “Patriotism" to amend their stance and admit what really happened - just too damn embarrassing and when enjoying a retirement “golden parachute” from “Big Oil”, of course they would remain off-course and the “Truth” diluted away just like their pollution. And to those Alyeska “Cowitts”, the Alyeska “Cowards” still breathing, still holding off telling the “Truth” what they were warned about, FUCK YOU and may a Prince William Sound seagull shit on your grave as we all find death in the end, just like the “SOUND” forevermore! I welcome feedback. I also welcome ridicule, but be careful as I have all the goods that testifies to an Alyeska “mindset” that was fit but for a single mission, “Portnoy’s Complaint”!