Thread: MS. Workers from India walk off the job in Jackson County

http://www.sunherald.com/185/story/416129.html

By MARGARET BAKER
SUN HERALD

About 100 Indian workers have walked off their jobs at Pascagoula's Signal International.
The workers are alleging they have been the victims of human trafficking. They want the U.S. Justice Department to investigate.
The workers said they paid recruiters $20,000 in India to come to the United States and work for Signal. In exchange, they said they were promised green cards, but were given only temporary H2B guest worker visas.The Sun Herald follows this story in tomorrow's edition

Originally Posted by BigLake13

http://www.sunherald.com/185/story/416129.html

By MARGARET BAKER
SUN HERALD

About 100 Indian workers have walked off their jobs at Pascagoula's Signal International.
The workers are alleging they have been the victims of human trafficking. They want the U.S. Justice Department to investigate.
The workers said they paid recruiters $20,000 in India to come to the United States and work for Signal. In exchange, they said they were promised green cards, but were given only temporary H2B guest worker visas.The Sun Herald follows this story in tomorrow's edition

And just what else do they want from the United States? Whatever it is, I'm sure it will include preferential treatment of some sort to compensate them for being ripped off by smugglers.

Originally Posted by BigLake13

http://www.sunherald.com/185/story/416129.html

By MARGARET BAKER
SUN HERALD

About 100 Indian workers have walked off their jobs at Pascagoula's Signal International.
The workers are alleging they have been the victims of human trafficking. They want the U.S. Justice Department to investigate.
The workers said they paid recruiters $20,000 in India to come to the United States and work for Signal. In exchange, they said they were promised green cards, but were given only temporary H2B guest worker visas.The Sun Herald follows this story in tomorrow's edition

They came up with $20,000 EACH to get green cards and to work here? What a racket! Tough luck guys.

I don't think they can accuse the recruiters of human trafficking, they PAID the recruiters to get them jobs here, which the recruiters did.

Signal's in a whole mess of trouble! Especially from any AMERICAN workers who lost their jobs to one of the Indians. Whooo boy!

I'd say this was GOOD news~! Looks like everyone is getting just what they deserve.

Good, let then walk! In fact I hope they continue their walk all the way to the airport and get on the next flight to India.

Are we supposed to feel sorry for someone who paid 20g's to come to this country because a company gave them temporary H2B guest worker visas instead of green cards (companies do not give green cards).

They get an H2B workers visa and they claim they were victims of human trafficking. Good, I think everyone involved has some explaining to do as i'm sure the displaced American workers who's jobs were taken would like an explanation as well.

Oopsie...they were ripped-off for a little money whilst trying to rip-off Americans big time. Boo ya.

I didn't know what the company does so for others who don't know either:

Signal International, LLC is a leading Gulf of Mexico provider of marine and fabrication services. Signal's achievements include:

Earning noteworthy marine industry awards for steadfastly enforcing safety policy.
New construction of Mobile Offshore Drilling and Production Units (MODUs and MOPUs)
Numerous upgrades, conversions, overhauls repairs, and surveys of MODUs and MOPUs.
On-location work (for example: mooring system enhancements) done on board by Signal skilled crews.
Fabrication to military specifications of ship modules for US Navy vessels.
Dry docking of large and small vessels to facilitate work on lower hulls, pontoons, propulsion/thruster systems, etc.
Signal's facilities span the Gulf of Mexico, affording easy access to offshore rigs and platforms. Four yards in Texas and two in Mississippi expeditiously deliver quality workmanship to maximize customers' uptime.

Signal International stands ready to do the tough job, in accordance with each customer's specifications - on time and on budget.

http://www.signalint.com/

About 100 Indian workers have walked off their jobs at Pascagoula's Signal International.
The workers are alleging they have been the victims of human trafficking. They want the U.S. Justice Department to investigate.
The workers said they paid recruiters $20,000 in India to come to the United States and work for Signal. In exchange, they said they were promised green cards, but were given only temporary H2B guest worker visas.The Sun Herald follows this story in tomorrow's edition

The recruitment occurred in India so would be under India's jursidiction?

This is a clue to the Immigration Service that some companies may be selling visa's and basing recruitment NOT on education qualifications or company need but rather who has the big money fees.

Perhaps it's time to halt temporary H2B guest worker visas and green cards until this is investigated.

Something to consider....'Selling' guest worker visas and/or green cards--
wouldn't that appeal to terrorists, drug smugglers, criminals, etc.? Those within such groups wouldn't have problems paying huge 'recruitment' fees.



[i]Carry the battle to them. Don't let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don't ever apologize for anything.â€

If they're here on work visas, and not working, they should be deported immediately and made to take up their case in India.
They also admitted to attempting to buy a green card. If they looked into it before handing over the cash, they knew green cards are issued by the US gov't and not individual companies, and commited a crime attempting to get a green card in a fraudulent way. They should be banned from coming back.

Originally Posted by Steph

If they're here on work visas, and not working, they should be deported immediately and made to take up their case in India.
They also admitted to attempting to buy a green card. If they looked into it before handing over the cash, they knew green cards are issued by the US gov't and not individual companies, and commited a crime attempting to get a green card in a fraudulent way. They should be banned from coming back.

Bingo! Exactly what I was thinking too.
You can't 'buy' green cards from a non-governmental organization. They're only issued by the US Gov't.

Plus, Steph is also right on the non-working status. The H2 visa is only valid so long as the non-national is here and working in the stated or agreed upon capacity. If they fail to continue working - the visa is essentially invalidated, and, at the very least, USCIS/USICE should be asking the workers some very probing and tough questions about when they will be working in the same job again.

Hey ICE - I know where some immigration violators are!!!!
Can you find them? I'll bet you can - now get it done!

UPDATE
http://www.sunherald.com/185/story/423008.html
Posted on Mon, Mar. 10, 2008
Lawsuit accuses company of violating Indian guest workers' rights
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS --A group of workers from India who claim they were duped into taking jobs at Gulf Coast shipyards and subjected to abusive living conditions are suing the company that hired them in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

A class-action lawsuit filed last Friday in federal court accuses Signal International, an oil rig construction and repair company, of exploiting and defrauding more than 500 Indian nationals who worked at its facilities in Pascagoula, Miss., and Orange, Texas.

Several dozen former workers staged a protest Monday outside the New Orleans office of a lawyer who allegedly helped recruit them to work for Pascagoula-based Signal as welders, pipefitters and other jobs through a federal guest worker program.

The workers claim they were lured here by the false promise of green cards and permanent U.S. residency. Some say they didn't know their work visas would last less than a year until after they paid thousands of dollars on travel and other expenses.

In their lawsuit, the workers also accuse Signal of subjecting them to "psychological coercion," threats of deportation and overcrowded living quarters.

"These workers mortgaged their futures for the American dream and instead incurred substantial debt, were forced to live in squalid living conditions and were threatened with (deportation) when they tried to stand up for their rights," said Jennifer Rosenbaum, a lawyer for the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Several calls seeking comment from Dick Marler, Signal's president and CEO, were not returned Monday.

Subulal Vijayan, one of 12 former workers named as plaintiffs in the suit, said he gave up a job in the United Arab Emirates to work for Signal and didn't know his work visa would expire 10 months after his arrival in December 2006.

Vijayan says he attempted suicide after Signal allegedly threatened to deport him in retaliation for complaining about the working conditions in Pascagoula.

"We are saying this a modern-day slavery," said Vijayan, a native of the Indian state of Kerala.

Rosenbaum said a shortage of skilled labor after hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 has left many Gulf Coast companies relying on guest workers. Some use the program to "undercut job quality and exploit foreign labor," she alleged.

Some of the same lawyers who represent the Indian workers also filed suit in August 2006 against Decatur Hotels, accusing the New Orleans hotel chain of violating the rights of guest workers from Bolivia, Peru and the Dominican Republic it hired after Katrina.

A spokesman for U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who chairs the House Education and Labor Committee, said in a statement that the congressman is "monitoring the situation in Mississippi."

Lawyers for the workers are asking a federal judge in New Orleans to certify the lawsuit as a class action. The suit accuses Signal and its recruiters of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act.

Also named as a defendant in the suit is New Orleans lawyer Malvern Burnett, who is identified as a "legal facilitator" for Signal. More than 50 protesters gathered outside Burnett's office Monday, chanting and holding signs that said, "Dignity" and "I Am a Man."

Malvern didn't immediately respond to a message left at his office.