Interviewer(s): Jason Theriot

Affiliation: University of Houston

John Deblieux is the Human Resource Director/Risk Management Director for Chet Morrison Contractors (CMS). He is also a member of South Central Industrial Association, a group of industry representatives who work to solve the labor crisis. Worked on lay barges during summers with Tennessee Gas, who his father worked for. He worked in risk management at Torch International with Phil Thibodeaux then came to CMC to run the Human Resources/Risk Management department.

Company significance/history: As soon as CMC opened a yard in Mexico, Deblieux began working with labor attorneys to keep migrant workers to Houma. It took CMC almost seven years through legal roadblocks to get the proper visas to bring in workers from their T&G Shipyard in Vera Cruz. The hurricanes paved the way through these roadblocks, however, in the process FEMA began taking away migrant fabrication workers with higher paying wages for clean-up, even though visas are only good for that one person and that one ten-month job at a fabrication yard.