Indian Workers to Launch Hunger Strike in DC
Monday, May 12, 2008
(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Hundreds of Indian workers will launch a hunger strike this Wednesday to
demand that the federal government investigate the guest worker program and
abuse of post-Katrina Gulf Coast workers. The hunger strike follows a march
from New Orleans to Washington by the workers, who escaped labor camps in
Texas and Mississippi in March. "Guest workers from across the world are
systematically exploited under the federal H2B visa program," says the New
Orleans Worker Center for Racial Justice (NOWCRJ), which is supporting
the workers. "They suffer abuses that routinely rise to the level of labor
trafficking, forced labor, and involuntary servitude. If they organize,
they face violence and deportation."