Workers from India sue, charging 'modern-day slavery'

[tpsbmam]

Source: CNN

A group of workers from India who claim they were duped into taking jobs at Gulf Coast shipyards and subjected to abusive living conditions are suing the company that hired them.

A class-action lawsuit filed Friday in federal court accuses Signal International, an oil rig construction and repair company, of exploiting and defrauding more than 500 Indian nationals who worked at its facilities in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and Orange, Texas.

Several dozen former workers protested Monday outside the New Orleans office of a lawyer who allegedly helped recruit them to work for Pascagoula-based Signal as welders, pipefitters and in other positions through a federal guest worker program.

The workers claim they were lured here by the false promise of green cards and permanent U.S. residency. Some say they didn't know their work visas would last less than a year until after they paid thousands of dollars on travel and other expenses.

Federal officials have reviewed Signal's employment practices, inspected its facilities and deemed them fully compliant with the law, the company said.

In their lawsuit, the workers accuse Signal of subjecting them to "psychological coercion," threats of deportation and overcrowded living quarters.

"These workers mortgaged their futures for the American dream and instead incurred substantial debt, were forced to live in squalid living conditions and were threatened with when they tried to stand up for their rights," said Jennifer Rosenbaum, a lawyer for the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/11/h2b.workers.suit.ap/

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Note that a New York Times story has a different take on where the workers are from:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/us/11workers.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

A group of 500 foreign welders and pipefitters brought in to work at Gulf Coast oil rig yards after Hurricane Katrina said Monday that they had sued their employer, claiming they were lured with false promises of permanent-resident status, forced to live in inhumane conditions and then threatened when they protested.

The workers were recruited in India and the United Arab Emirates and brought in late 2006 and early 2007 under the government’s temporary guest worker program. They worked at Signal International, an oil-rig repair and construction company with yards in Pascagoula, Miss., about 85 miles east of here, and in Orange, Tex., about 100 miles east of Houston.

At a rally here Monday, workers and their lawyers said they had given up life savings, sold family jewelry and paid up to $20,000 in immigration and travel fees after being assured that the company would help them to become permanent residents of the United States.

[redqueen]

1. Good... I'm glad they're fighting back.

These corporations and their unchecked greed...

[Vincardog]

2. are "welders and pipefitters" jobs that Americans won't do as well as IT?

[TexasBushwhacker]

3. Can't speak for the pipefitting ....

but welding on oil rigs is pretty specialized stuff. I used to work for a company that specialized in it and we kept our welders very busy and they weren't cheap.

[AnneD]

10. My brother is a master welder....

everything from bridges to subs-and he is a true craftsman. His last boss hired him for so many hour for state bridge construction. He suddenly got his hours cut. The bosses explanation...."I can hire 2 wet backs for what I pay you." When my brother commented on the quality- the guy had the nerve to say..."by the time anything happens, I'll be long gone". Needless to say my brother was furious. So think of that next time you cross over a bridge in Arizona.

Since AZ cracked down on illegal aliens and the employers that hire them....things have improved, esp in employment opportunities.

[TexasBushwhacker]

14. Some "wet backs" still have the experience needed

My boss brought two guys in from South America who had many years experience working on rigs in Venezuela and other countries. He paid them the equivalent of what he paid the legal employees, but they didn't have benefits. He did pay for an ER visit for one though when he got something in his eye. But honestly, if we had found American citizens who had the experience needed, we would have hired them. Young people haven't been going into the trades as much as they used to, and they haven't for several years. Most of the "wet back" welders work on burgurlar bars, not offshore.

[AnneD]

15. The boss was a total prick....

these guys could barely do burglar bars:eyes: My brother's problem-he's a damn good welder and most folks want to pay trainee wages. He makes more working as an independent contractor. He has more work than he can shake a stick at. Perhaps a trainee program for potential workers. That is actually how he got his start. Cameron Bridge and Iron Works. Was with them for a long time until he got the chance to supervise building the subs. He really took a lot of pride in that. As brother said-they would die from lack of air before one of his seams gave way.

Sadly, many are like that bad boss.

[TexasBushwhacker]

19. I agree, and those bad bosses break the backs of the whole

industry. There is a similar problem with virtually anyone involved with building houses in Texas, and in Arizona too I imagine. There are the bosses that do the right thing and hire only legals, and there are the ones that hire whoever is cheapest, whether they are legal or not. The companies that hire only legal workers struggle to get the jobs and make a profit, while the owners of the companies who hire illegals pocket the profits and mistreat ALL their workers - lower pay, not worker's compensation if they get hurt, no benefits, and the list goes on. Of course, the builders who hire those subs that use illegals are at fault as well. The bottom line is, it's not really the illegals fault. They only come here to work because they know they can get hired. If the bad bosses of the world didn't break the law ....

[AnneD]

20. You're preaching to the choir here...

I live here in Houston and see it every day. I remember when the craft jobs were good paying and plentiful. It was one of those jobs that was an under pinning of the middle class-you could support a family on them. The hiring of illegals has suppressed the wages. You can go to some sites and they won't even look at you unless you look illegal and speak Spanish. It makes it harder for those companies that try to do right. Az has new laws against fining illegals and it really has been working. The bad thing is that the illegals go to 'friendlier' areas. The good new....my brother is coming back to Texas.

[pop goes the weasel]

5. Americans won't do those jobs

under slave-labor conditions. Damned lazy Americans.

I know lots of welders and pipefitters. It's skilled work that employers don't want to pay full price for.

[Vincardog]

6. my point exactly

[nam78_two]

4. The company has not denied that they made false promises

At a rally here Monday, workers and their lawyers said they had given up life savings, sold family jewelry and paid up to $20,000 in immigration and travel fees after being assured that the company would help them to become permanent residents of the United States.

20K is a lot of money in India...I hope there are reparations.
Poor people :-/..

[Vincardog]

7. I don't know where you live but 20K is a lot of money where I live. I hope the workers

win their suit and the parasitic corporate vampires have to pay damages plus ten thousand times putative damages. Then maybe they will agree to pay American workers living wages and quit the importing labor to undercut our wages and screw the foreign workers.

[nam78_two]

8. It is a lot of money where I live

But my sense is that it is an almost astronomical figure (especially if you are poor/lower middle-class) in India...
At least that is my impression.

[merh]

9. Casinos use the "guest workers" to do the house cleaning, the

grounds work, the domestic labor. They house them in apartments sleeping them in shifts and if they get hurt and complain, they are told they will be sent back. This goes on along the gulf coast, more so since Katrina because the housing shortages. Workers didn't have a place to live so they had to leave to find housing and work. Without affordable housing there is no way the work force can be reestablished and the casinos and ship yards have found a way around that, they bring in guest workers and have their company stores and their slave like living arrangements.

Another ship yard brought in Koreans as welders, it is the way corporations and industry has learned to keep those profits flowing while getting the work done.

[flashl]

11. The scourge in Mississippi is broader ...

New Orleans Worker Justice Coalition
For Immediate Release
August 22, 2007
New Orleans, LA

Pascagoula Police Captain Kidnaps Guestworkers

Mexican H2B visa workers charge ranking officer with kidnapping, kidnapping with intent to enslave, false imprisonment, and gross civil rights abuses; File Notice of Intent to announce that they will bring major lawsuit.

More than 30 Mexican nationals who entered the country on H2B visas were kidnapped in Pascagoula, Mississippi by Captain George Tillman of the Pascagoula police department and a US labor recruiter.

Workers and advocates charged Tillman with State and Federal crimes kidnapping, kidnapping with intent to enslave, false imprisonment, human trafficking, and violations of the workers’ civil and constitutional rights. They filed a Notice of Intent declaring that that they will sue Tillman and the Pascagoula Police Department.

Workers released a formal statement today that recounted their journey as guestworkers across the post-Katrina Gulf Coast...

Modern-day slavery on the Gulf Coast

[HCE SuiGeneris]

12. Corporatism at its shiny best...

pencil pushing morons (CEO, CFO's, etc.) have no clue what an "ongoing concern" is, nor how it should operate. Everything is based on short term numbers. F'n idiots.

[AngryOldDem]

13. Good. Maybe now this bullshit will be exposed for what it really is...

...modern-day slave labor.

[IronLionZion]

16. K+R

Thanks for posting this. Good for these workers for fighting the power.

[2Design]

17. should have hired americans from new orleans instead of shipping

around the country when BFEE genocide actions did not work - this is so stupid -

[OhioChick]

18. Good. I Hope They Win This Lawsuit

and hold these companies accountable.

[Megahurtz]

21. LOL Good for them

and good for us.

It's long overdue time to abolish Corporate Slavery and Corporate Rule!