Mississippi Clean Up Jobs For Residents Only?

Several hundred people came to pick up their last checks Thursday after being cut from an oil spill training program.
All the workers lost their jobs because of where they live.
Several hundred people were told to come pick up their checks after being told they couldn't continue with a hazardous material training program being conducted in Gulfport, Mississippi.
Glenn Welstad with the staffing center, Command Center Labor, said, "The governor of Mississippi said he wants people from Mississippi to work in Mississippi. The word came down from our contractor above us, and (he) said, 'You will cut everybody who's not from Mississippi tomorrow morning.' "
And for those people who were eligible to get their haz-mat certificate?
One of the workers, Amy Thompson of Mobile, said, "They just informed us, if we want our license, we took that test. We passed that test, we have to pay them $600. That's the only way we're getting our license."
When asked why his company was charging $600, Welstad said, "All the schools were free, right? If you go on the open market, the price of the certificate runs from $400 to $750 if you go looking for it."
Some people who got paid said they were short changed, like one person who didn't want to appear on camera.
He told News Five, "We got promised 12 hours and we only got 8."
Welstad said, "If you have failed to sign in every day and sign out, you will not get a full paycheck, but, you will get it later. We've got to just figure it out."
When asked how long it will take, Welstad said, "We've got to bill them (the contractor), and get paid. It'll be a few days, I would guess."
As for Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour's statement, the governor's press secretary told News Five it wasn't a directive not to hire people from outside Mississippi.
He said the governor just told British Petroleum that he wanted Mississippi people to get cleanup jobs in Mississippi.