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

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.

His visa expired Sept. 2007......How is he still here?

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.

Versions not the same.
In earlier article the workers said they paid recruiters $20,000 in India to come to the United States and work for Signal and claimed they were promised green cards, but were given only temporary H2B guest worker visas.

"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.

the Southern Poverty Law Center

Maybe SPLC will get one of their numerous African- American lawyers to get right on it! Er - wait a minute....

I think it is all a load of crap, nothing more than Indians looking to get green cards...are immigration is such sops they will feel sorry for the liars and give them the g-cards Pleassssse!!


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http://www.sunherald.com/306/story/426394.html
Posted on Tue, Mar. 11, 2008

Congressman seeks details of labor probe in Indian workers' case

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
Associated Press Writer
A congressional leader is asking the Labor Department to turn over information about a Mississippi company accused of exploiting and defrauding hundreds of Indian nationals who worked at its Gulf Coast shipyards after Hurricane Katrina.
In a letter sent Tuesday to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., requested copies of reports from any department investigation of Signal International, an oil rig construction and repair company based in Pascagoula.
Miller, who chairs the House Education and Labor Committee, also asked the Labor Department to provide him with documentation for any guest worker that Signal has employed in the past five years.
A federal lawsuit filed last Friday by a group of workers from India accuses Signal of subjecting the immigrant workers to forced labor and poor living conditions at its facilities in Pascagoula and Orange, Texas.
The lawsuit claims Signal's recruiters lured them to the United States with the false promise of green cards and permanent U.S. residency when their visas actually lasted less than a year.
Signal says several federal agencies, including the Labor Department, reviewed the company's employment practices and facilities and found them in compliance with the law. The company also dismissed the suit's allegations as "baseless and unfounded."
Labor Department spokesman Loren Smith said an investigation of Signal that ended in March 2007 didn't find any violations of federal labor laws.
Smith said he couldn't disclose the reason for the investigation, which included an inspection of Signal's Pascagoula facility but didn't expand to other company locations.
Tushar Sheth, an attorney for the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said the Labor Department should have conducted a more thorough review.
"We need a real investigation," said Sheth, who is part of a legal team that filed the suit on behalf of the former Signal workers. "They really need to look at the broader picture."
Signal is among many Gulf Coast companies that hired foreign workers to fill a shortage of skilled labor after hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. Signal hired more than 500 guest workers from India to be welders and pipefitters and perform other jobs.
Miller said he has sponsored legislation designed to protect guest workers from "unjust treatment" by labor recruiters and employers.
"I have also made clear my position that guest worker programs generally ... are in need of both strengthened labor protections for U.S. and foreign workers and greater labor law enforcement," he wrote in his letter to Chao.

Hopefully Signal, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and other companies will learn from this that 'cheap foreign labor' isn't so cheap after all.

Meanwhile Americans deal with skyrocketing unemployment. These companies should be fined severly and lose their business licenses.

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.

What? He couldn't read? The UAE pays a heck of ALOT more than the US, so what gives? Something smells really rotten in Denmark....