Hungry for Justice: Modern-Day Slavery in New Orleans

[Joanne98]

by Sameer Dossani
When Paul Konar left his native India for the United States in 2006, he could never have imagined that less than two years later, he and several of his co-workers would be giving a lesson in Indian-style change making. Yet Konar, joined by his supporters and fellow fasters, has been on a vigil in Washington, DC for 17 days. He hasn’t eaten anything since May 14.

“We have learned from Gandhi that when faced with injustice, non-violent non-cooperation is the way to create meaningful change,” said Konar, speaking in front of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Dupont Circle. “By keeping this vigil we are letting the world know that this modern-day form of slavery, known as the H2B guest worker program, must end.”

An Industry of (False) Hope

In the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, an unknown number of workers were contacted by contractors around the world to come and help rebuild. Companies that had already been awarded huge contracts and incentives to set up shop in the Gulf Coast were being extra greedy — guest workers generally make about 60-80% of the prevailing wage for domestic workers. By using guest workers to implement their contracts, companies were ensuring extra padding in their profit margins while simultaneously breaking the back of the already weak organized labor movement.

To implement this strategy, Signal International, a subcontractor of Northrop Grumman, had to find cheap and efficient skilled labor to build the ships that it was contracted to provide. The target country for finding these skilled workers? India — a country with a whole lot of skilled yet impoverished people.

But there was a problem with this strategy. Many Indians with the specific welding skills needed to help Signal International were already working abroad. These workers were often in the Middle East, and making pretty good money. Most workers were also able to negotiate with their employers the opportunity to spend at least two-three months per year in their home country. Clearly it was going to take something special to convince such workers to give up their jobs and move to a completely new country.

Enter Sachin Dewan, of Dewan Consulting. Dewan was an Indian recruiter who specialized in finding skilled labor for U.S. companies. By placing ads in newspapers and magazines read by Indians abroad, Dewan was able to get in touch with hundreds of Indian workers. When these workers visited Dewan’s offices in Dubai or Mumbai, he convinced them of the benefits of working for Signal International, often with representatives of Signal International and always with Signal’s U.S. lawyer Malvern Burnett present.

The workers were promised the ability to bring over their families, permanent residency and green cards (the magic word) if they agreed to work for Signal International in its shipyards in Mississippi and Texas. In exchange for this bonanza, the workers need only pay the “paltry” sum of $20,000 U.S. up front and in cash.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/02/9366/

How much do you want to bet that the Jindal family has something to do with this?