For those who heard about the missing Nepali workers from a Huntsville manufacturing company, here is a twist in the story. Kashish Das Shrestha, a New York-based freelancer, who is currently in Huntsville, says that the local news media had misreported some important facts.
According to his report, the workers did not steal any furniture from the apartments. Also, according to Huntsville's local newspaper, the workers were under no contract to stay with the job at Cinram. They came to the United States on H-2B visas, still valid for several months.
WAAY-TV, which broke the news, had earlier reported that some of the Nepalese allegedly stole furniture and television sets. CNN's Bill Tucker, reporting for Lou Dobbs Tonight, also repeated the theft allegation with some regular comments on US immigration policy. (read the full transcript below).
Kashish's report is published on Samudaya.org:
The apartments are operated by a company called Total Management Services, and are furnished with old couches and beds. The furniture consists of no more than plastic tables and chairs, the kind that are more commonly used in the garden. Most rooms also come with old television sets, and the landlords had promised to give the Nepali tenants a DVD player per apartment if they paid their rents on the first of every month. "We moved furnitures around from room to the other, but we haven't stolen anything," said one of the workers requesting anonymity.
One thing that is clear amongst the 40 or so Nepalis workers left, from the original lot of about 240, is that each is now stricken with paranoia and embarrassment. "It was very humiliating for us to go to work when the media reported that we were thieves," said a worker. "And now, even though we had plans to leave Cinram after some time, for whatever reason, we are worried that we will be caught."
You can contact Kashish at kashish[at]nepaliaawaz[dot]com.
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And Huntsville's local newspaper now reports that the workers could leave at any time.
Most didn't go home; they found better jobs
As Huntsville's new labor strategy makes headlines on the opposite side of the globe, the Nepalese workers who continue to pack boxes at Cinram say their missing countrymen didn't leave without an official OK.<snip>
The short form letter stated that employment was at-will of the company, adding that: "Employees are free to relinquish their positions at any time, with or without cause."
Here is the full transcript from Lou Dobbs Tonight.
BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Approximately 100 guest workers from Nepal at this Cinram plant in Huntsville, Alabama, have abandoned their jobs and their apartments. No one knows for sure where any of the workers have gone. The owners of the apartment complex where the workers were living say they left without notice and claim that they stripped the furnished apartments of furniture and TVs.
MARY SNOPL, LANDLORD: I don't know if they're living in Huntsville or somewhere else. I just know they aren't living with us and they aren't working at Cinram.
TUCKER: The initial news of the disappearance touched off security concerns. One local county official who had been opposed to the company bringing in the workers raised concerns of a terrorist threat.
MO BROOKS, COUNTY COMMISSIONER: Cinram insisted that there were long background checks and Cinram was vouching to the citizenry of Madison County that they had this program under control, when apparently they did not.
TUCKER: Cinram dismisses those concerns, noting that each worker underwent a background check by the Department of Homeland Security. The company issued the following statement:Quote, "All of the H-2B Visa applications must be screened by the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Counselor in their local country as well as the U.S. Embassy in their local country."A spokesman for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service confirms DHS does do background checks, but that doesn't answer the questions of where those 100 workers went or why. A company spokesman says he believes as work slowed down, the workers just decided to sightsee the country rather than work.
TUCKER: And it also doesn't answer the question why the company needed to hire 1,141 workers from five foreign countries to work in its plant in Alabama instead of hiring Americans. The company says there weren't enough locals to fill the jobs. They pay around $8.50 an hour so they went to Nepal. And while the terms of the H-2B Visa do allow travel, there's no way to know to where these workers went and Kitty (INAUDIBLE) there's no way to know if in fact they will leave when their visas expire.
PILGRIM: There are so many open questions on this entire story, it's almost preposterous.
TUCKER: I know. You would think that Cleveland, for example, might be a little closer than Nepal, so that if workers there needed work, they could go there. But then Kitty they'd probably have to pay them more.
PILGRIM: Unbelievable. Thanks very much, Bill Tucker.
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