Widespread Abuse of Immigrant Day Laborers in U.S. Shows Gap in Legal Aid

[Judi Lynn]

Widespread Abuse of Immigrant Day Laborers in U.S. Shows Gap in Legal Aid

By CARA ANNA
Associated Press Writer
KINGSTON, New York

(date posted at bottom of article:
2006-02-12 14:14
©2006 OhmyNews)

Sergio de la Cruz says the abuse began when he was picked up at a day labor site and taken to a construction site in New York City's Bronx borough, where his boss took his Mexican identity papers and locked him in at night.

For four months, de la Cruz says he was locked into three separate sites, most of the time sleeping on a plank bed and defecating into a plastic bag.

As America's use of day labor grows, legal aid experts say this is one of the more striking complaints. But just as striking, they say, is that de la Cruz didn't know someone could help him.

In the first national survey of day laborers, released last month, nearly half of 2,660 workers interviewed said they'd been cheated out of pay in the past two months. Almost 45 percent said they hadn't been given food and water. More than one-fourth had been abandoned at a work site.
(snip/...)

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=3&no=273885&rel_no=1

[bullimiami]

1. they love the smell of slavery in the morning.

immigration reform = re-legalizing slavery.

[Trillo]

2. It's not just immigrants.

I was born and raised in the U.S., and it was my experience that employers just liked to shaft me, if they could. Since they're usually corporations, they have an attorney on staff or retainer to screw with you. Same with schools. Same with 'em all.

In the first national survey of day laborers, released last month, nearly half of 2,660 workers interviewed said they'd been cheated out of pay in the past two months.

It's all about MONEY.

[Orrin_73]

4. Very true, there was a story about wal-mart locking

workers at night in their stores. It seems that wal-mart managers do that often.

[BlueIris]

3. K&R. Essential for anyone who wants to understand...anything. nt

[ret5hd]

5. remember this story? ...

http://www.alternet.org/story/13364/

snip:
Pickle then quickly put the men to work constructing a new dormitory within the factory complex itself, an ominous, bleak compound that covers over 60 acres in a run down area of Tulsa. That dorm would eventually house all 53 workers. According to Mondal's affidavit and my interview with another worker, A.K. Shaji, the new kitchen was constructed dangerously close to industrial equipment and radiation-emitting X-ray machines, which they blame for making many of the men ill. When Mondal complained about having inadequate utensils for cooking, Pickle instructed the men to weld a vat out of stainless steel from the factory.


snip:
"Mr. Pickle began to ration the food," Mondal states. "Only one small glass of milk was to be given every three days." In early November, Mondal noted that many men were losing weight and refusing to eat the food, often bought after its expiration date. In every conversation I had with the men, food was a recurring topic.

"We went to the supermarket and I put a bag of rice in the cart and Pickle took it out and said 'that one's too expensive.' He grabbed another one and put it in the cart. It was 50 cents cheaper," Shaji told me. Pickle then refused to buy spices and finally decided that the men would eat only beans. "Indian men were not used to beans. I asked for mutton. Pickle began to curse at me," writes Mondal.


much more at link.