Bush to bayou.

• Author: Fedullo, Charles
• Position: NATIVE BUSINESS: SPECIAL SECTION

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The sun is slowly burning off the morning fog in Gonzales, La. The smell of sausage, gravy and biscuits helps wake the four dozen or so men and women heading to a petrochemical plant to do maintenance work. They slowly emerge from their rooms in a small hotel located off Route 30.

Duke Burns looks tired, but the middle-aged man is ready to get at it. He's been away from his Noatak home for about two weeks. "My snowmachine needs fixing, and gas costs about $10 a gallon," Burns says. "This work will help me get it going and keep it running." He is one of about 90 people from Northwest Alaska doing maintenance work on a Turner Industries facility in Louisiana.

SHAREHOLDERS GAIN SKILLS, CASH

New skills, on-the-job training and cash; that is what these Alaska Native corporation shareholders, predominately from the NANA region, receive as part of a partnership between NANA Development Corp. and Turner Industries, a Baton Rouge-based industrial maintenance, turnaround and construction company.

Most of the workers are NANA shareholders; however, Bristol Bay, Koniag and Afognak Native corporations also have shareholders on this job

After completing five days of safety and skills training in Anchorage, the workers are in Gonzales, a small industrial town about 45 miles from New Orleans. They are there to remove and replace catalysts and provide other cleanup services to the facility. Two weeks were scheduled, but Turner, impressed with the crew's skill, speed and efficiency on the job, asked that the workers stay another week. More than half will.

The partnership between Turner and NANA is part of NANA's goal to provide training and a chance for villagers to experience a job outside their region. Turner has struggled to find a work force for this type of employment in recent years and has found the Alaska workers to be efficient, effective workers.

About a 15-minute car ride from the camp, one of the Turner project managers is done for the day. "Work hard, get it done; that's what they do," says Turner Maintenance Manager Barry Woods about the Alaska crew. "We hope this opens up their eyes to other opportunities." Woods clearly likes what this Alaska group brings to Turner.

TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE

The crew helps Turner, but also themselves. They are now trained, certified workers with experience doing refinery turnarounds. Turner and NANA will provide more opportunities for these folks and others like them. The training and...