Filipino workers: Oil company abandoned us in Hurricane Ida

By KEVIN McGILL
Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Ten Filipino men who worked for a major offshore oil industry employer under federally granted visas claim in a federal lawsuit they were treated like prisoners at a company bunkhouse and that some of them were abandoned there when Hurricane Ida struck the Louisiana Gulf Coast in August 2021. Their former employer denies the claims and has struck back with a counterclaim accusing the workers of defamation. The judge in the case dismissed the defamation allegations in a Jan. 20 order. The competing court filings at the U.S. District Court in New Orleans lay out starkly different views of life for Filipino workers at Louisiana-based Grand Isle Shipyard.