Minority Business Leader Blasts BP's Failed Response to Gulf Area Workers

HOUSTON, July 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce today expressed his outrage and concern over reports that hundreds of Gulf Coast fishermen have not received their scheduled hardship payments.

"I'm deeply troubled that BP is not fulfilling its promise to these fishermen and their families," Harry Alford, president and CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, said.  "When BP made this mess, they promised the thousands of people who rely on the Gulf for their livelihood that they would make them whole – to-date they've failed miserably.  They aren't stopping the spill.  They aren't cleaning up the mess.  And now they're not taking care of the families that they've harmed.  America and the Gulf Coast residents need more than empty promises and broken dreams.  We need BP to follow through on their commitments."

Mr. Alford responded to news reports that workers from the Gulf region were unexpectedly notified that BP was changing its payment schedule to individuals who have been caused severe hardship due to BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Mr. Alford is in Houston today talking to minority business owners about the disaster's impact on their businesses and getting a firsthand account of BP's response efforts and the long road to recovery for the region.

The National Black Chamber of Commerce is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, nonsectarian organization dedicated to the economic empowerment of African American communities.  The goal of the NBCC is to sustain African American communities through entrepreneurship and capitalistic activity within the U.S. and via interaction with the Black Diaspora. The NBCC was incorporated in Washington, D.C. in March 1993, represents 95,000 Black-owned businesses, and provides an advocacy that reaches all 1 million Black-owned businesses in the U.S.

SOURCE National Black Chamber of Commerce