Page 48 - Jean Pascal News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

collection. meanwhile admiral thad allen says skimming capability has increased five fold since the beginning of june. even so, bobby jindal says local parishes are still waiting for their cleanup equipment. and a new forecast by noaa says there's an 80% choice that the oil will reach miami, that's right, miami, by the middle of august. it's already made its way to the panhandle of florida where a new health watch was issued for all pensacola beaches, a disastrous start for the holiday weekend throughout the gulf. cnn's john zarella joins us now from pensacola where the wind has appa...

Safety questions have plagued bp long before this spill. as we reported, employees accused the company of putting profits above the safety of people. for the last four years, they paid for an internal watchdog un unit. tonight we've learned something pretty starting. bp is trying to eliminate that program. special investigations unit correspondent drew griffin investigates. >> reporter: for 26 years, jean pascal was a lawyer for the environmental protection agency, investigating and trying to prosecute some of the worst environmental polluters in the northwest, including oil companies in alask...

Independent investigators and it doesn't like employees reporting safety problems outsi the company. a union representative said some bp workers who complained faced retaliation. jean pascal agrees. >> many employees who have actually reported environmental, safety and health issues, particularly in alaska, have been retaliated against, they've been demoted, terminated and also have been blackballed. >> reporter: a bp spokesman says the company has, quote, a zero tolerance policy regarding retaliation. the company, he says, is unaware of any unresolved cases that violate the policy. and there'...

Michigan congressman bart stupak was one of those who pressured bp. >> the entire reason that office came to fruition was because of safety. >> was because of safety, yes, and safety concerns continue yet today. >> reporter: since the ombudsman's office opened, 112 bp workers have come forward to file reports, 35 of them deal with, quote, system integrity or safety issues and the ombudsman's office says they are extremely serious but keeping them honest, sources close to the ombudsman's office says bp doesn't like it, and its independent investigators and it doesn't like employees reporting sa...

Retaliation. jean pascal agrees. >> many workers who reported issues have been retaliated against, they've been demoted, terminated and also been blackballed. >> a bp spokesman says the company has, quote, a zero tolerance policy regarding retaliati retaliation. the company, he says, is unaware of any unresolved cases that violate the policy. and there's this. not long after he took over as chairman of the bp america, lamar mckay met with congressman stupak. >> he said i'm going to replace the ombudsman, shut her down. we said what do you mean? he was only on the job a few weeks or month or tw...