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In reply to the discussion: Centrism Is A Corporate Scam. DON'T FALL FOR IT. [View all]JimDandy
(7,318 posts)60,000 KNOWN incidents of indentured servitude in the U.S. last year. This morning on NPR a Philippine woman recounted her story of 2 years of slavery in California.
She was recruited for a job while in the Philippines. The job was caregiver to the elderly in an assisted living facility in Pasadena. It was supposed to be for room and board plus $600/ month (Pretty sucky compensation for even a legit job in CA).
When she arrived at the job site, though, it was a residential boarding house run by a female owner who informed the worker that she now owed the owner $12,000 plus interest for travel costs and the paperwork for her visa. To repay these "debts" the owner kept $300 of the $600, so the worker received only $300/month.
And the room and board was a sham. There was no room. She had to sleep on the floor or in reclining chairs and her clothes and personal effects were stowed in the closets of the elderly roomers. Her "board" was literally leftover bones and scraps from the elderly roomers plates, so her $300 pay went mostly for food to eat. She worked 16 hrs/day with only 2 days off per month.
She was finally rescued when a neighbor noticed that she worked there every day and called the F.B.I. They set up a sting operation that snared the owner and put her behind bars for 5 years. The former indentured servant is now an advocate for others discovered to be in this situation in U.S.