Indian Workers Start 'Hunger Strike for Justice'
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Indian workers launched a hunger strike Wednesday morning to demand the US
and Indian governments investigate worker exploitation faced by guest workers in
the Gulf Coast. Supporters chanted “Inquilab, zindabad” ("long live
revolution") while workers opened the water-only hunger strike with silent
prayers and ceremonial first drinks of water. “We have let the US and Indian
governments know our demands but they have only given us words, not actions,”
said Sony Sulekha, one of the hunger strikers. “We stand here to say that
until we have victory, the strike will continue.” The workers – former
employees of marine construction company Signal International, a subsidiary of
Northrop Grumman – walked off the job in March and began a truth-action
tour to protest and expose Signal’s human trafficking violations and
worker abuse through President Bush's H2B visa guest worker program (DC
Jobs with Justice Corner: Indian Workers to Stage Hunger Strike in DC 5/8/08
UC). Speaking through a translator, workers detailed the situation they faced
while working for Signal, including being forced to pay Signal $1,050 a month to
live 24 to a trailer. “We came to the US for the promise of the American Dream, but instead we were put
in a camp and treated like slaves,” said former Signal worker Sabulal Vigayan.
When Vigayan and some of his co-workers organized, Signal sent armed guards into
the camp and locked them up. Hundreds of workers walked off the job in protest
and Vigayan and the other organizers were eventually released, but Signal
continued to intimidate and threaten workers. “We escaped Signal’s labor
camps and went straight to the Department of Justice and yet we are being
treated like criminals, living under the threat of deportation every day,”
said Muruganantham Kandhasami. Dozens of additional workers are expected to join
the hunger strike at the end of May if the workers’ demands – which include
allowing the workers to stay in the US and participate in a Department of
Justice investigation of Signal; Congressional hearings into abuses of Gulf
Coast workers under the guest worker program; and Indian government action to
protect future Indian workers – are not met. Click here to support the
workers’ struggle.
- report/photos by Andy
Richards