Re[2]: Re: Immigrants Rebuilding Gulf Coast Suffer ?Third World? Conditions

[Guest guest]

Just look at who brought them here....the big corporations!

Barth

TOXIC MOLD SURVEY: www.presenting.net/sbs/sbssurvey.html

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Aml> Um.......... these are ILLEGAL aliens, not sweet little " immigrants " .

Aml> They broke our laws getting here and shouldn't be here in the first place.

Aml> This article is so biased and twisted in it's representation, it's not even

Aml> factual.

Aml> And if Congress were on it, they would be throwing them (illegals) out.

Aml> I know too many legal immigrants (i.e.. Americans) who's wages are severely

Aml> depress because

Aml> of these free-loaders.

Aml> Angelika

Aml> [] Re: Immigrants Rebuilding Gulf Coast Suffer ‘Third

Aml> World’ Conditions

>> Thanks for this article. Of course we know that Halliburton and the

>> other contractors won't pay for their crimes. Even though our own

>> laborers should have been given these jobs working under OSHA

>> standards, I am so sad for these poor immigrants looking for a better

>> life. They will probably be sick for a long time. We need to keep

>> after our Congresscreeps like pitbulls to punish the perps. Corporate

>> America is literally getting away with murder.

>>

>> Barth

>>

>> TOXIC MOLD SURVEY: www.presenting.net/sbs/sbssurvey.html

>>

>> ---

>> Immigrants Rebuilding Gulf Coast Suffer ‘Third World’ Conditions

>> by Kari Lydersen

>>

Aml>

http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_contributor_bio & contributorID=96

>>

>> As businesses reap huge profits from contracts to clean up and

Aml> reconstruct

>> the storm-devastated Gulf Coast, a hidden underclass doing much of the

Aml> toiling

>> is underpaid, defrauded and mistreated.

>>

>>

Aml>

http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_special_coverage & subject=katrina

>> Nov 3 - Immigrant workers, many of them undocumented, comprise a large

>> portion of the post-Katrina workforce in the Gulf Coast region. Lured to

>> Mississippi and Louisiana by contractors promising high wages, housing and

>> food, many arrive to find those commitments empty. More than two months

Aml> after

>> the area was devastated by the storm, complaints among immigrants are

Aml> rising.

>> Workers interviewed by The NewStandard and by rights advocates attempting

Aml> to

>> document and improve conditions have described toiling for long hours

Aml> cleaning

>> up toxic mold, sludge and other dangerous substances like asbestos for

Aml> low

>> pay and sometimes no pay at all. They also describe living in squalid

>> conditions in makeshift dormitories, emergency relief shelters or on the

>> streets.

>>

>> Osmond , 30, came to the US from Tegucigalpa, Honduras eight months

>> ago, fleeing the poverty and corruption there. told TNS he was

Aml> living

>> in Plano, Texas when a Spanish-speaking recruiter came to his apartment

Aml> and

>> offered him construction work in Mississippi. The recruiter promised

Aml>

>> housing, food, good pay and " everything " if he came to work for a

Aml> construction

>> company called " . "

>>

>> Once he got to Mississippi, said, he found things much different

Aml> than

>> promised. He said he was expected to work about 75 hours a week

Aml> demolishing

>> a casino in Biloxi but was never paid overtime. He said he received about

>> $740 a week for the grueling work, and when he got sick for four days, his

Aml> pay

>> was suspended. He also said that the contractor still owes him for two

Aml> weeks

>> of work.

>>

>> also said he wasn't given an apartment as the recruiter had

Aml> promised,

>> but rather had to sleep in the streets or in a big workshop with about 70

>> other men.

>>

>> Gustavo, 35, another immigrant living in Biloxi, said the same contractor

>> recruited him in Dallas, Texas and had not paid him in four weeks.

Aml> " There's

>> exploitation, " he said, in Spanish. " The company should pay week by week,

Aml> but

>> it's been four. "

>>

>> When The NewStandard called the number on the card that the contractor

Aml> gave

>> , it was disconnected.

>>

>> According to an increasing number of reports filtering out of the Gulf

Aml> area,

>> layers of contractors and subcontractors hired by huge companies and by

Aml> the

>> federal government have been operating with near-impunity in the chaotic

>> reconstruction zones, bringing in crews of mostly undocumented workers to

Aml> labor

>> long hours for low pay. Immigrant rights groups monitoring the situation

Aml> on

>> the ground say the contractors frequently violate minimum-wage and

Aml> overtime

>> laws, often failing to provide the workers housing or adequate safety

Aml> equipment.

>>

>> The Texas-based Equal Justice Center and the Mississippi Immigrants Rights

>> Alliance are among a small number of advocacy groups working to publicize

Aml> the

>> labor law violations and general exploitation of immigrant workers in the

>> area. Nikita , who works at the Equal Justice Center in

Aml> Mississippi,

>> about three hours' drive from the coast, said she has documented numerous

>> stories of workers not being paid.

>>

>> " It's been really common, " she said. " They keep working on trust. With

Aml> their

>> immigration status, they are afraid, so they just stay quiet and put their

>> heads down. To make things worse, there is the language barrier. And most

>> people are from very low-income families; some don't know how to read or

>> write. "

>>

>> Equal Justice Center organizer Anita Grabowski recently met about 35

>> immigrants who had been working 12-hour days repairing a school in Pass

>> Christian, Mississippi. She said they too complained of not being paid.

>> " They were pulling insulation out from the ceiling with no safety

>> equipment, " she said. " After two weeks, they told the contractor they

Aml> refused

>> to go back to work if they weren't paid. They were owed about $2,000 each,

>> about $70,000 total. "

>>

>> Grabowsky said the immigrants were " working around the clock " and had no

>> money to buy food. She also said they were living in tents in " really

>> stressful and unsanitary conditions. "

>>

>> During a survey of the area, Vasquez of the American Friends

Aml> Service

>> Committee met a group of immigrants brought in by a North Carolina

Aml> contractor.

>>

>> " They had been in a trailer for three weeks and hadn't had food for three

>> days, because most of them hadn't been paid, " said Vasquez. " A lot of

Aml> people

>> don't know what the situation is within this disaster zone. There are

Aml> rampant

>> violations of workers' rights and health conditions. "

>>

>> Ken Haggard, a retired fire captain from Terrebonne, Oregon volunteering

Aml> with

>> the Red Cross in New Orleans, said that near the downtown Red Cross

Aml> shelter

>> by the Hotel LeCirque he found a condemned gymnasium where about 50 Latino

>> immigrants were living in filthy, rat-infested conditions. During two

Aml> weeks of

>> daily visits to the site in late October, he said he observed police

Aml> officers

>> preventing other labor recruiters from approaching the immigrants, but

>> otherwise doing nothing to help them.

>>

>> " This is the US, and we're treating people like it's a Third World

Aml> nation, "

>> Haggard said. " How can we bring people in from other countries and house

Aml> them

>> in these despicable conditions and say that's okay? How can the health

>> department be allowing this? This is absolute mistreatment. It's beyond

Aml> callous;

>> it's totally immoral. "

>>

>> Contractors have also put workers up in emergency shelters meant for

Aml> destitute

>> hurricane victims. As a result, immigrants displaced by the storms have

>> suffered an anti-immigrant backlash.

>>

>> On September 28, US Marshals raided a Red Cross shelter in Long Beach,

>> Mississippi. According to the Wall Street Journal, they blocked the exits

>> and briefly detained about 60 people who looked Hispanic. The shelter

>> residents, including workers and hurricane victims, were told they would

Aml> be

>> put in detention if they did not leave, as most did the next day.

>>

>> According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, immigration agents raided a

>> worksite at the Belle Chasse Naval Air Station on October 19, detaining

Aml> more

>> than 100 immigrant workers who were building a tent city there. The raid

Aml> was

>> executed at the request of US Senator Landrieu (D-Louisiana). The

>> contractor, BE & K out of Birmingham, Alabama, was a subcontractor of

>> Halliburton Corp., the Houston-based conglomerate that has a contract to

>> repair military bases throughout the area.

>>

>> The Equal Justice Center has been working to document violations of labor

>> laws in order to press for restitution. They note that there are

Aml> relatively

>> few immigrants' and workers' rights groups in this part of the south. They

>> also say it has been difficult to figure out which companies are involved.

>> " There are multiple layers of subcontractors, " said Grabowski. " We're

>> tracing them back to the source. The real problem on the coast is there is

>> no mechanism to make sure contractors will be held accountable for paying,

>> period – and then for paying decent wages. "

>>

>> © 2005 The NewStandard. See our _reprint policy_

>> http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_reprint_policy

>>

>>

>>