Indian Workers Demand Major Changes in Guest Worker Program

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/04/02/indian-workers-demand-major-changes-in-guest-worker-program/

by James Parks, Apr 2, 2008

Chanting, “All the way to the White House!” and carrying signs, saying “I Am A Man,” more than 70 Indian guest workers rallied at the White House gates Monday in a cold rain to demand fundamental changes in the nation’s guest worker program, which business interests want to expand. They also want a congressional investigation of their former employer, Signal International, a marine construction company they say held them in modern-day forced labor in its Pascagoula, Miss., shipyard.

Jagpal Yadav, one of the former workers at the shipyard, says the workers were exploited first by unscrupulous recruiters and then by the company.


Indian workers from the Signal International shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., rally in front of the White House.

In India, we paid $20,000 to recruiters who promised permanent residency and citizenship. When we came here, we found out all the promises were false—there were never any green cards. There were just prison-like conditions. We lived as if in a jail, 24 people to a room. We had no place to sit or stand. We slept in bunkbeds stacked on top of each other. The man in the top bunk couldn’t even sit up straight because his head would hit the ceiling. The conditions were degrading.

Sony Suleka, an organizer with the Alliance of Guest Workers for Dignity and a former Signal worker, says the company:

took away our hopes and dreams and shattered us mentally. Now we are asking the U.S. government to investigate Signal and put an end to this system of modern-day slavery.

The action at the White House kicked off a week of meetings the immigrant workers will hold with members of Congress and staff, including the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

FULL story at link.

[mitchleary]

1. So

They thought they were going to get treated like an american worker? :rofl: That is why they brought you over here, so they could pay and treat you like they want to treat the American workers.

[DCKit]

2. And they claim Americans don't want those jobs. Sheesh. n/t