DC Jobs with Justice Corner: Indian Workers to Stage Hunger Strike in DC

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Hundreds of Indian workers will return to DC next week to launch an indefinite hunger strike to demand the federal government investigate the guest worker program and abuse of post-Katrina Gulf Coast workers. Next week’s launch follows a nationwide tour by the workers – sponsored by the New Orleans Worker Center for Racial Justice (NOWCRJ) with support from Jobs with Justice – in March and April that included stops in DC. In late 2006, the workers mortgaged their futures – and $20,000 – on false promises of fortune and green cards by recruiters from marine construction company Signal International. But when the workers arrived in the US to work on post-Katrina reconstruction, they only received guestworker visas and were forced to pay Signal $1,050 a month to live in a trailer with 23 other workers. “At a time when 30 percent of New Orleans workers were looking for work, the government suspended a law that made it illegal to hire undocumented workers,” says NOWCRJ Organizer Saket Soni. “The guestworker program is designed to control labor. It sanctions forced labor by migrants and further disenfranchises the most vulnerable American workers.” The hunger strike will specifically call on the Department of Justice to prosecute Signal International and for Congress to hold hearings on the guest worker program in the post-Katrina Gulf Coast. Workers and their supporters kick off the hunger strike Wednesday, May 14th at Lafayette Park. Watch UNION CITY! for further details. For more info, contact Ruth Castel-Branco, Rcastel@dclaborarchives.org; 202-974-8281.
- report by Ruth Castel-Branco