Re: Immigrants Rebuilding Gulf Coast Suffer ‘Third World’ Conditions

[Guest guest]

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

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Immigrants Rebuilding Gulf Coast Suffer ‘Third World’ Conditions

by Kari Lydersen

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

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

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

is underpaid, defrauded and mistreated.

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 after

the area was devastated by the storm, complaints among immigrants are rising.

Workers interviewed by The NewStandard and by rights advocates attempting to

document and improve conditions have described toiling for long hours cleaning

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

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

offered him construction work in Mississippi. The recruiter promised

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

company called " . "

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

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

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

of work.

also said he wasn't given an apartment as the recruiter had 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. " There's

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

it's been four. "

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

, it was disconnected.

According to an increasing number of reports filtering out of the Gulf area,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

labor law violations and general exploitation of immigrant workers in the

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

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

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

violations of workers' rights and health conditions. "

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

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

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

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

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

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

it's totally immoral. "

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

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

[Guest guest]

Welcome to America..

Is this OUR future?

On 11/5/05, snk1955@... <snk1955@...> wrote:

>

>

> Immigrants Rebuilding Gulf Coast Suffer 'Third World' Conditions

> by Kari Lydersen (_bio_

>

(http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_contributor_bio & contributorID=9\

6) )

>

>

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

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

toiling

> is underpaid, defrauded and mistreated.

>

>

(http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_special_coverage & subject=katrin\

a) 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 after

the

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

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

> document and improve conditions have described toiling for long hours

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

for 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