Revolt in Mississippi: Indian Workers Claim 'Slave Treatment'

^{Photo from the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice}

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, local corporations have been rearranging the area’s labor system somewhat. Citing a “labor shortage” companies like Signal International, featured here, have been importing Indian workers, luring them with the promise of permanent residency before handing them a 10-month working visa and lumbering them with a massive debt. It’s all very Dubai.

These courageous workers at Signal’s Pascagoula shipyard also allege that they have been forced to live “like pigs” in a “work camp.” After staging a mass walkout, they plan to report themselves to the U.S. Department of Justice as “victims of trafficking.”

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.

Posted by Szamko
Just tries to tell the truth.