They haven’t drawn a paycheck in months. Some haven’t set foot on dry land since January. But at least 10 crew members stuck aboard three tugboats near the Texas Gulf Coast aren’t any closer to going home—and their employer and the U.S. government are exacerbating the problem.
The trouble started in November, when crews of three articulated tug-barges—tugboats designed to hook into barges that carry crude oil, gasoline, and other cargo—were told they couldn’t come to shore in Texas after voyages to Florida and Pennsylvania. Their employer, New York-based Bouchard Transportation, hadn’t paid for the barges to dock and be reloaded with cargo. So they waited. And waited. Meanwhile, their employer stopped sending paychecks.
In a statement, Bouchard blamed the hiccups on financial problems; the expenses of years of oil spills, explosions, and lawsuits apparently have added up. Despite at least two decades of headline-grabbing incidents, the company has continued to operate, shipping fossil fuels across the Gulf and the Eastern Seaboard. Until now, that is.
