Indian Workers Claim 'Slave Treatment' in Mississippi

[peejay 327]

Peejay sez: You have to wonder what these guys are getting paid to believe the malarky about there being a "worker shortage". How about a shortage of American workers willing to work for those wages and working conditions? Do you think these jobs were even advertised in Ohio? Would unemployed Ohians work for the wages and working conditions offered?

Revolt in Mississippi: Indian Workers Claim 'Slave Treatment'

Workers Call for Signal International to Be Prosecuted on Alleged Human Trafficking Charges

By JOSEPH RHEE

March 7, 2008—

Rebelling against alleged "slave treatment," some 100 workers recruited from India staged a dramatic protest at a Mississippi shipyard Thursday, claiming they had been tricked into coming to the United States.

The workers, brought from India to work as welders and pipe-fitters at Signal International shipyard in Pascagoula, hurled their hard hats at company gates and demanded a federal investigation.

The workers claim they were defrauded by a Signal International recruiter in India who promised them green cards and permanent residency in the U.S. in exchange for a $20,000 fee. The workers allege that they instead received 10-month work visas, which was only enough time for them to pay off their recruitment fees.

The workers also claim that Signal forced them to live in substandard housing, with 24 men crammed into a small room. The men say Signal charged them more than $1,000 a month to live in company housing.

"For more than one year, hundreds of Indian workers at Signal International have been living like slaves," said former Signal worker Sabulal Vijayan. "Today the workers are coming out to declare their freedom. This trafficking needs to end."

The workers have reported their situation to the U.S. Department of Justice and are calling for Signal International to be prosecuted on human trafficking charges.

Signal International strongly denied the workers' allegations. The company released a statement saying, "Unfortunately, a few of the workers whom Signal had sponsored for H2B visas and recruited have made baseless and unfounded allegations against Signal concerning their employment and living conditions." According to the statement, "The vast majority of the workers whom Signal recruited has been satisfied with the employment and living conditions at Signal."

Signal called its housing complex "state of the art" and said government inspections have "found that Signal's practices and facilities are fully compliant with the law."

The Mississippi Gulf Coast has faced a severe labor shortage in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and many companies have replenished their workforce with overseas labor brought in under a guest worker plan. Human rights groups, however, charge that many foreign workers have been exploited by their employers.

"The U.S. State Department calls it 'a repulsive crime' when recruiters and employers in other parts of the world bind guest workers with crushing debts and threats of deportation," said Saket Soni of the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice. "This is precisely what is happening on the Gulf Coast."

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4409785&page=1

[mawilson 2,133]

If they don't like it, they can always go back to India. No-one's forcing them to stay.

[Alex+R 0]

If they don't like it, they can always go back to India. No-one's forcing them to stay.

Arrogance + ignorance and a little dash of snark, and we have a Mawilson post. Have you heard of human trafficking?

[mawilson 2,133]

If they don't like it, they can always go back to India. No-one's forcing them to stay.

Arrogance + ignorance and a little dash of snark, and we have a Mawilson post. Have you heard of human trafficking?

Nope. What's that?

[Alex+R 0]

I'm juuuust teasin' ya.

[mawilson 2,133]

I'm juuuust teasin' ya.

What do I know, I don't have a PhD in Human Trafficking from Kings College, New York like you do.

[peejay 327]

If they don't like it, they can always go back to India. No-one's forcing them to stay.

But that's not the point. They want to stay...forever. Before it's all over they will all be making asylum claims or trying to weasel a Green Card with the help of the aformentioned "Human Rights Groups".

I'm still wondering if DHS has ever found the missing 100 Nepalese H2B "temporary guestworkers" that wandered off from Cinram in Alabama. This stuff stinks to high heaven. Before it's over they too will be weaseling for an amnesty or some other claim to asylum and a Green Card. I've said it once and I'll say it again...There is no such thing as a guestworker. Wise up people! This ####### is going on all over the USA.

Finger-Pointing Continues Over Missing Foreign Workers at Cinram

Posted: Jan 30, 2008 09:43 AM CST

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAAY) -- The Department of Homeland Security is looking for more than 100 workers from Huntsville's Cinram plant who have turned up missing. The group of workers from Nepal simply disappeared without any warning, creating a potential security risk.

Before leaving, some of the Nepalese allegedly stole furniture and television sets from their furnished apartments. Cinram spokeswoman Lyne Fisher says the missing workers do not pose a security threat.

"Some of them may have wanted to stop in some of the major attractions you'd want to see if you were visiting the U.S., for example, New York City or something like that."

The Nepalese workers were recruited by officials at Blair Staffing Agency. A Blair spokesperson referred us to the company president who said he wasn't ready to talk on camera.

The question of who, if anyone, is responsible for the workers remains unclear. Fisher placed the blame on the workers.

"The onus is on the individuals themselves," Fisher said. "They work with Homeland Security, their local government, and with these staffing agencies. All those folks work together with the individual to ensure they return home."

Joan Harris has practiced immigration law for years, and also said the responsibility lies squarely on the shoulders of those workers.

"If they're going to, for instance, take off one day after they get off work, the employer would have no way knowing this," Harris said. "So how can they be held responsible for this

Harris said if the missing workers are located elsewhere in the U.S., they would be penalized if they violated the terms of their visas. About 240 workers from Nepal came to Huntsville on the H2B visa program. That system allows foreign workers to stay in the country as long they remain employed at the business that brought them to the U.S.

Harris says there is no system in place to hold workplaces accountable for workers who go missing because it's unreasonable to hold employers responsible for the actions of their employees.

"There's nothing we can do about (finding the workers)," she said. "That's up to the immigration service and the federal government."

Opponents of foreign worker programs say situations like the one at Cinram create a major security risk, but Harris said from her experience, she's found that's probably not true.

Officials at Cinram and Blair Staffing Agency said they believe most of these workers got homesick and went back to Nepal. That has not been verified by the tracking system that Homeland Security officials use.

Landlords at the apartment complex where the Nepalese workers had lived said they had scattered to New York, Florida, and other places across the country. Homeland Security officials said the investigation is ongoing.

Meanwhile, local leaders are sounding off about the incident.

"Cinram first and foremost is responsible," said Madison County Commissioner Mo Brooks. "Cinram insisted there were long background checks and were vouching to the citizens of Madison County that they had this program under control, when apparently they did not."

Fellow commissioner Jerry Craig had another perspective.

"Seems like they're taking advantage of an opportunity to run off to me," Craig said Tuesday. "Having 100 people not be found is bad, but to lose the entire plant for not having enough workers would be bad also."

http://www.waaytv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7795914

Edited March 12, 2008 by peejay

[Oosie 1]

Peejay sez: You have to wonder what these guys are getting paid to believe the malarky about there being a "worker shortage". How about a shortage of American workers willing to work for those wages and working conditions? Do you think these jobs were even advertised in Ohio? Would unemployed Ohians work for the wages and working conditions offered?

Revolt in Mississippi: Indian Workers Claim 'Slave Treatment'

Workers Call for Signal International to Be Prosecuted on Alleged Human Trafficking Charges

By JOSEPH RHEE

March 7, 2008—

Rebelling against alleged "slave treatment," some 100 workers recruited from India staged a dramatic protest at a Mississippi shipyard Thursday, claiming they had been tricked into coming to the United States.

The workers, brought from India to work as welders and pipe-fitters at Signal International shipyard in Pascagoula, hurled their hard hats at company gates and demanded a federal investigation.

The workers claim they were defrauded by a Signal International recruiter in India who promised them green cards and permanent residency in the U.S. in exchange for a $20,000 fee. The workers allege that they instead received 10-month work visas, which was only enough time for them to pay off their recruitment fees.

The workers also claim that Signal forced them to live in substandard housing, with 24 men crammed into a small room. The men say Signal charged them more than $1,000 a month to live in company housing.

"For more than one year, hundreds of Indian workers at Signal International have been living like slaves," said former Signal worker Sabulal Vijayan. "Today the workers are coming out to declare their freedom. This trafficking needs to end."

The workers have reported their situation to the U.S. Department of Justice and are calling for Signal International to be prosecuted on human trafficking charges.

Signal International strongly denied the workers' allegations. The company released a statement saying, "Unfortunately, a few of the workers whom Signal had sponsored for H2B visas and recruited have made baseless and unfounded allegations against Signal concerning their employment and living conditions." According to the statement, "The vast majority of the workers whom Signal recruited has been satisfied with the employment and living conditions at Signal."

Signal called its housing complex "state of the art" and said government inspections have "found that Signal's practices and facilities are fully compliant with the law."

The Mississippi Gulf Coast has faced a severe labor shortage in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and many companies have replenished their workforce with overseas labor brought in under a guest worker plan. Human rights groups, however, charge that many foreign workers have been exploited by their employers.

"The U.S. State Department calls it 'a repulsive crime' when recruiters and employers in other parts of the world bind guest workers with crushing debts and threats of deportation," said Saket Soni of the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice. "This is precisely what is happening on the Gulf Coast."

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4409785&page=1

It looks like they could qualify for T visas based if this story is accurate.

Companies trying to save money never look at the long term.

[JaEnglishGirl 34]

My friend came up on a work program from Jamaica,.

She had to pay $3000 for visa and fees, her own airfare and food.

She pays $200 a month to live in a 4 bedroom house with 11 other people.

She works from 5.30pm to 6.30am 6 days a week for $4 a hour (which I believe is below the minimum wage in Alabama)....

Modern day slavery alive and kicking....the twist being that she consented to it.....

[peejay 327]

My friend came up on a work program from Jamaica,.

She had to pay $3000 for visa and fees, her own airfare and food.

She pays $200 a month to live in a 4 bedroom house with 11 other people.

She works from 5.30pm to 6.30am 6 days a week for $4 a hour (which I believe is below the minimum wage in Alabama)....

Modern day slavery alive and kicking....the twist being that she consented to it.....

Yes...and at the same time Hillary and Obama are making speeches about NAFTA and good jobs leaving the USA. Families can't make ends meet...yadda...yadda...yadda. The American working class is squeezed. Blah...blah...blah.

Both political parties are to blame for allowing this to happen. Pelosi is trying to get even more H2B's into the USA. All these guestworker programs are poorly run with little or no oversite and a sham for getting as much cheap foreign labor under the nose of the American public as they deceive us into. Just a small step above illegal alien labor. Americans will and have done all these jobs for a living wage. In my day welding and pipe fitting were good paying jobs that Americans gladly did. But not at sh*t wages that are paid now. There is not an American worker shortage. There is a shortage of Americans willing to work for sh*t wages that are unlivable. If there was a worker shortage wages would be going up...not down. Use your brain and wake up!

The American people need to wake up and realize that the corporations run both political parties. Follow the money. It's not about bringing the rest of the world up to our standards...it's about bring American workers down to their standards. The corporations will always gravitate toward the lowest common denominator. Our politicians are letting it happen and even helping it along.

Do you think the Dems are any better in this regard as Repubs? It's all about cheap votes, cheap labor, and self serving politics. And these public servants are supposed to be working for the American people? I dare say they work for themselves. Here is their latest shenanegans:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8031002202.html

[Heracles 417]

Yes...and at the same time Hillary and Obama are making speeches about NAFTA and good jobs leaving the USA. Families can't make ends meet...yadda...yadda...yadda. The American working class is squeezed. Blah...blah...blah.

Both political parties are to blame for allowing this to happen. Pelosi is trying to get even more H2B's into the USA. All these guestworker programs are poorly run with little or no oversite and a sham for getting as much cheap foreign labor under the nose of the American public as they deceive us into. Just a small step above illegal alien labor. Americans will and have done all these jobs for a living wage. In my day welding and pipe fitting were good paying jobs that Americans gladly did. But not at sh*t wages that are paid now. There is not an American worker shortage. There is a shortage of Americans willing to work for sh*t wages that are unlivable. If there was a worker shortage wages would be going up...not down. Use your brain and wake up!

The American people need to wake up and realize that the corporations run both political parties. Follow the money. It's not about bringing the rest of the world up to our standards...it's about bring American workers down to their standards. The corporations will always gravitate toward the lowest common denominator. Our politicians are letting it happen and even helping it along.

Do you think the Dems are any better in this regard as Repubs? It's all about cheap votes, cheap labor, and self serving politics. And these public servants are supposed to be working for the American people? I dare say they work for themselves.

Very well said Peejay.. I do not think many, if any, politicians here actually represent the people; which is their job. Rather than being here for the people and for the country they are here for themselves. Their actions or lack of on certain issues prove that. They need to read up on America's history to learn what a real politician is all about. They need to look at many countries abroad to understand how to represent the people on a nation they are responsible for.

The country is going bankrupt. The country was ranked extremely low, in terms of living standards, prior to this mortgage crisis. Where will it end up next year. I think some people want this country to economical turn into a stereotypical south American nation. Americans are losing jobs left right and center yet there is still absolutely nothing being done about illegal immigration. A group of people who are a net burden on this country, it's resources and living standards.

I don't know about anyone else but I would be more than happy to work a job that apparently no American wants to do than lose my house. While we are catering for the poor poor Mexicans we are being dragged into poverty ourselves.

What is Obama's, Hillary's or McCain's views on this??

Edited March 12, 2008 by Boo-Yah!

[Miranda&James 8]

My friend came up on a work program from Jamaica,.

She had to pay $3000 for visa and fees, her own airfare and food.

She pays $200 a month to live in a 4 bedroom house with 11 other people.

She works from 5.30pm to 6.30am 6 days a week for $4 a hour (which I believe is below the minimum wage in Alabama)....

Modern day slavery alive and kicking....the twist being that she consented to it.....

Actually, no, the minimum wage is not $4 in Alabama. Alabama does not have its own minimum wage laws, meaning it adheres to the Federal Minimum Wage, which is $5.85.

http://www.alalabor.state.al.us/faq.htm

[Heracles 417]

Actually, no, the minimum wage is not $4 in Alabama. Alabama does not have its own minimum wage laws, meaning it adheres to the Federal Minimum Wage, which is $5.85.

Minimum wages are pointless when an employer can simply hire an illegal immigrant off the books. Effectively ###### over both the country and other Americans looking to get by..

Edited March 12, 2008 by Boo-Yah!