Indian Guest Workers Protest Modern-Day Slavery
Thursday, March 27, 2008
(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Indian guest workers will hold a series of actions in the coming
days to pressure Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen to take legal action against their
employer for human trafficking and forcing workers into slavery-like working
conditions. The workers claim that recruiters for Signal International -- a
marine construction company -- promised them decent wages and “green cards”
but, when they arrived in the US, were forced into “substandard housing with
24 men crammed into a small room for which they each were charged more than
$1,000 a month,” reports James Parks on the AFL-CIO
Weblog. The workers from India – who filed a lawsuit against the company
last week – also claim they paid a $20,000 fee to recruiters in exchange for
permanent US residency documents, but were only given a 10-month work visa,
Parks reports. The Indian workers will hold a press conference in Dupont Circle
today at noon and will rally outside the White House on Monday. Watch UNION
CITY! Friday and Monday more info on the upcoming events.