Thousands of jobs have already been lost in the wake of plunging oil prices – thousands more appear to be on the chopping block as oil companies try to cut costs to stay afloat.
For workers on the ground, the story carries an even heavier weight. Those stories are part of a new series by the Victoria Advocate called Surviving the Bust.
Rye Druzin, the reporter behind the series, says he spent a year in Midland getting to know oil industry executives before coming to Victoria, so he wanted to hear stories from the regular folks involved in the industry: the derrick men, the rig operators, the tool pushers.
“We wanted to see how they were faring,” he says, “in the midst of what is arguably one of the worst downturns since the 1980s.”
What you’ll hear in this segment:
– Who they interviewed and who suffered the most
– The range of experience in the workers they interviewed
– What “blowing and going” means and how the community has seen the stories Druzin has written
