HUMAN RIGHTS: Over 100 Indian shipyard workers stage walk out in Mississippi

For several months I've been seeing mention of a job opening for a Malayalam-and-Hindi speaking paralegal at the Southern Poverty Law Center, in Alabama. I couldn't imagine what the exact need was, but much as I tried, I couldn't get a full answer from the people at SPLC. Clearly, there was some sort of litigation in the works and they didn't want to tip their hand. All they could say was that there an "increasing number of Indian guestworkers seeking assistance from our office with labor trafficking and exploitation as part of a larger trend that involves recruiting workers from farther away and charging increased recruitment fees."

Today, we appear to have our answer. Over a hundred Indian H2B workers at a shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi staged a walkout this morning. The shipyard is run by Signal International, and the workers contend they've been lured into a human trafficking ring created by the company in the aftermath of Katrina, which resulted in a severe worker shortage. They plan to "report themselves to the Department of Justice as victims of trafficking, and demand federal prosecution of Signal."

The walkout was covered by WLOX-TV (click to see a small image of the walkout), and describes workers symbolically throwing their hardhats over a fence (picture from flickr) and then singing "We Shall Overcome" in their "native language." It quotes Saket Soni of the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice, who served as an interpreter for the workers:

They talk of living "like pigs in a cage" in a company-run "work camp." 

"I've been a guest worker all my life. I've never seen these kinds of conditions," said the interpreter, "We lived 24 people to a room. And for this, the company deducted $1,050 a month from our paychecks."

The workers say they paid $20,000 each in order to come to America. One of the workers, Sabulal Vijayan (a Malayali, presumably), tried to organize his fellow workers last year and was fired. He then attempted suicide.

Here's more from a press release sent to me by Stephen Boykewich, who works with Soni at the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice:

"The chain began in 2006 when recruiters in New Orleans and Bombay, together with Signal, a Northrop Grumman subcontractor, used the post-Katrina labor shortage in the Gulf Coast to create a trafficking racket within the guest worker program that President George W. Bush wants to expand.

“Each of us paid $15,000 to $20,000. They promised us green cards and permanent residency, and instead gave us ten-month visas and made us live like animals in company trailers, 24 to a room,” said former Signal employee Sabulal Vijayan. “We were trapped between an ocean of debt at home and constant threats of deportation from our bosses in Mississippi.”

When the workers began to organize last year, Signal sent armed guards to detain and fire the organizers. A year later, Signal workers are taking action to protect future workers.

“The recruiters who defrauded us are collecting money from other workers right now with the same false promises. We are speaking out to protect them,” said Vijayan, who has testified before a Congressional subcommittee investigating post-Katrina labor violations on the Gulf Coast.

“The US 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, director of the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice. “This is precisely what is happening on the gulf Coast.” 

The actions will continue through the weekend and next week, so there will be strong opportunities for coverage after tomorrow..."

Signal has denied the charges and issued a statement in which it says it spent over $7 million to house the workers.

WLOX-TV appears to be the only media outlet to have covered the walkout. For more information, contact Stephen Boykewich at 504-655-0876. Or email him at spboykewich[at]gmail.com

Here's are some of the media outlets who picked up on the story after reading this post:

• ABC News: "Revolt in Mississippi - Indian Workers Claim 'Slave Treatment'"
• The Hindustan Times: "Indians treated 'like pigs' in US" (from their front page)
• The Times of India
• Newindpress

Comments

[Mira Kamdar]

This is so disturbing and only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the grotesque exploitation of Indian and other third-world workers the world over (think of that other Gulf, e.g. in the Middle East). What I want to know -- and I hope some enterprising investigative reporter digs up -- is who the subcontractor is who supplied these workers to Signal? I suspect there is at least one. Who runs the subcontracting company? Sadly, many of the white-collar equivalent worker procurement companies of this type of operation in the information technology sphere are run by Indians or Indian Americans. I want to know who is running this one. All human trafficking makes me sick, but somehow when it's your own people doing it to others of your own people, it feels worse.

[Sam]

Mississippi Primary will be coming soon. This can be brought to the attention of candidates for their position. Some thing good may come out. Indian supporters of the candidates could also help.

Sam Kannappan
Houston

[Dave Makkar]

It is very unfortunate Victims and their families from Indian community are victimized more and left alone because we lack unity and Political representation in America.

With the rising fortune of India and financial stability of people of Indian origin living in America ; the time has come we must increase our Political representation in America with right kind of Leadership. Those who preach that in America to get into main stream politics one should know & visit 3 I’s; Ireland, Isreal and Italy, now they must change their perception it is no more 3 I’s but 4 I’s; Ireland, Israel, Italy and India.

Dave Makkar

[Srinivasa Raghavan]

I'm glad Sajaforum decided to put something in on this issue. I wondered if Indians had been affected. I've been following the H2A and H2B story for some time.

The H2A and H2B programs are rife with abuse. This isn't an isolated incident. Similar things are cropping up all over the country. While the H2A and H2B program require an employer to pay a wage that is higher that minimum wage (they must pay an adverse effects wage rate which ensures that they don't displace american labor, at least theoretically), the inherently coercive aspect of the program is that the visa is tied to the employer, which creates a structural disincentive to complain. That's why employers prefer paying the higher rate to an H2A or H2B rather than hiring undocumented workers. The undocumented workers while lacking a valid visa, can often change employers if the conditions are oppressive. In areas where undocumented workers have strong community contacts, they can do this, and at least impose some minimum control on overreaching by the employer by 'voting with their feet' so to speak. In contrast, H2A and H2B labor may not have any local contacts in the areas where they are sent, and therefore are at the mercy of the employer.

The way the employers get the full value of the higher wage is by threatening the employees with termination if they can't produce at a certain standard. They also minimize dissent by removing workers who complain about poor treatment and oppressive conditions. The workers are in constant fear of early termination. This is because the workers are frequently recruited in their home countries with promises of high pay and a dream life and are asked to pay large sums of money as recruiting fees. Often they don't have the money up front and either borrow money from family members who also may be in precarious economic conditions or they take an advance against land or personal property. Getting fired would be losing what they can't afford to lose. Thus, the nature of the system is to put up with whatever rubbish the employer doles out. Another reason employees are afraid to complain, is fear of a blacklist. At least with respect to H2a which is for agricultural guestworkers, some growers in particular regions have blacklists which they forward to recruiters and ask them not to accept persons on the list. Some of these people were blacklisted for complaining to legal aid.

While these programs have been lauded by conservatives as a type of immigration reform, in fact they are just a new version of an old scourge, indentured servitude. Please be sure to check your candidates' position on the immigration issue and see what they're position on H2a and H2b are.

[Tenaz H. Dubash]

Its great to see a labor trafficking case get so much media attention! Media folks are usually all over sex trafficking cases and ignore the more complex, less sensational, labor cases. Having worked in the human trafficking field at an NGO for four years - I can confidently state that out of the 300 survivors of human trafficking that we have worked with, over 60% of the cases involve labor trafficking (as opposed to sex trafficking cases)

The pathetic little New York State trafficking bill that passed in November 07 makes sex trafficking a B felony and labor trafficking a D felony. How ironic that Spitzer, who bulldozed the passage of the bill, may now have to suffer the consequences of his arrogant actions...and on a totally unrelated note, what the hell are the wives of these sleazy politicians doing, passively standing beside them as they recite their litany of sins??...I would bop the guy on his head with a frying pan and let him face the music alone ...or with his band aid for moral support!
Ok ...enough rambling - back to ridding the world of human traffickers :)

[Sendhil]

This situation reminded me strongly of a previous case that This American Life covered in a compelling story last year.

http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=344

344: The Competition
Stories of the unintended consequences of market forces.

Prologue: Host Ira Glass talks to reporter John Bowe about the story of John Nash Pickle, who ran a company in Tulsa, Oklahoma that made steel tanks used in the oil industry. According to 52 Indian men whom Pickle hired and brought to America, Pickle was trying to compete with foreign companies, doing something most companies never try. Instead of simply opening a factory overseas with cheap labor, the men say, Pickle decided to run an overseas factory with cheap labor...on American soil...inside his own Tulsa Oklahoma plant. (3 minutes)

Act One. Cowboys and Indians: We continue the story of John Pickle. He hires skilled, experienced welders in India and brings them to the United States. He takes their passports, barely feeds them, pays them half the minimum wage. And when the men protest, Pickle insists he's helping them—doing them a favor in fact.

John Bowe's book, in which this story appears, is called Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy. (32 minutes)

A link to the book:
http://www.powells.com/biblio?PID=28734&cgi=product&isbn=1400062098

[kumar]

WideCircles is one of a kind viral, word of mouth advertising platform. Have your message seen by millions of users on highly related forum/blog/wiki and other types of social networking websites. Recieve instant website hits from untapped market potential and boost your search engine rankings. Only pay low fee for messages that remain active on websites for specific number of days. More affordable and better then pay per click advertsing. To find out more, please visit us today.
http://widecircles.com?s=a1

[yachtcharter griechenland]

I was just thinking about HUMAN RIGHTS: Over 100 Indian shipyard workers stage walk out in Mississippiand you've really helped out. Thanks!