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NEWS & LETTERS, April - May 2007Shipyard workers fight forced laborMore than 300 Indian workers in Pascagoula, Miss. from different parts of India claim that their employer, Signal International LLC, a marine fabrication company in Mississippi and Texas, is guilty of extreme labor exploitation. The workers are in the United States with temporary “H2B" guest worker visas to work as welders and fitters. They report paying up to $20,000 to acquire these visas. The workers report living in substandard conditions in the camps where Signal has housed them. They live in isolation with 24 men in each cramped “container" unit, with only two bathrooms for all of them. Visitors are not allowed in the camps, and workers cannot make any complaints to the company. They are frequently threatened by the company with salary reduction or termination; the latter would compromise the terms of their visa and likely result in deportation. Last week, Signal conducted a raid of the workers’ camp. Company representatives entered with armed security guards and took six workers. The company locked the workers in a room and told them they would be sent back to India. One of these workers, who had sold all of his possessions for the H2B visa, ran from guards into a bathroom and emerged with bloodied arms as the result of what witnesses believed to be an attempted suicide. He was taken to a hospital. In a statement to local immigrants’ rights advocates, representatives of the workers said, “We paid money to a U.S. lawyer working on behalf of the company and to Indian recruiters. We have proof of this payment. For some of us, this is a lifetime of earnings in India. We all sold our property and our houses to come and work for Signal. “In India we were promised that we would be getting green cards and permanent residency. This was not true. We were given temporary H2B visas which expire on July 31, 2007. We have been treated like animals here. We do not know if we will be extended on a new visa. We cannot recover the money we have spent on the visa in less than two years." Recently, a Punjabi worker was threatened with termination and being sent back to India. Subsequently, he suffered a fatal heart attack, which fellow workers attributed to the stress of the situation. The workers collected money amongst themselves to send his body back to India. Despite opposition from Signal, the workers have formed a committee called the Signal H2B Employees Organization. Members of the committee say that workers are still being confined by the company against their will. Two hundred of them are holding a vigil outside the room where their fellow workers are locked up in an attempt to monitor the situation and prevent the workers from being sent back to India. The committee has collected over 150 signatures for a statement of support. They demand that Signal International:
To show support or for further information, call Bill Chandler, Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, (601) 594-3564; Vicky Cintra, Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, (228) 234-1697, or Saket Soni, Alliance of Guestworkers for Dignity, (504) 881-6610. --Sharda Sekaran |
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