Interviewer(s): D. Austin. Cut Off, LA

Affiliation: University of Arizona

I was referred to George St. Pierre by Katherine Richardelle. George and his wife, Helen, were present throughout the interview. George was very forthright about his lack of education and how it prevented him from taking promotions and moving up within the company. Despite his lack of formal education, George was a keen observer, both of what was happening around him and of the social dynamics in the offshore work environment. He talked about relationships among engineers and platform workers, interactions between company men and contractors, and the relative position of the cooks in the industry hierarchy. He talked also about problems supervising roustabouts who were making very low wages and who were brought onto the platforms merely to fill a quota so someone could get paid for having supplied them. In one instance, for example, a supervisor had rounded up a number of drunk men from New Orleans and brought them out to the platform unconscious. When they woke up, they did not know where they were or why they were there, and George had to try to get them to work. Helen made a couple of comments when we were talking about the effects of the work on families, but otherwise she sat knitting. She is a painter, and her paintings decorate the house.

George St. Pierre was born in 1926 in Golden Meadow. He worked as a shrimper and oysterman for 20 years before going into the oil and gas industry because things were rough and he could not make a living fishing. He started on vessels and then moved to offshore platforms when Chevron sold its tugs in 1956. He retired in 1985.