New Orleans, Louisiana March 8, 2008
Today Global Workers met with Brazilian and Mexican workers who were all exploited through the guest worker program and are organizing with the support of the New Orleans Workers Center. The Brazilian workers paid up to $6,000 to secure jobs as welders at the Signal shipyard in Mississippi. But when they arrived they were shocked to discover that there was no work at all. After three months with no pay whatsoever, the desperate workers left the job to seek work elsewhere, despite the fact that the Brazilian recruiter threatened to charge them thousands of dollars if they broke the contract, regardless of the reason.
The Mexican workers traveled to Louisiana to pick strawberries under H-2a contracts. Going into debt of $1,000 with 20% monthly interest, the promise of $8.10 an hour seemed well worth the risk. However, when they arrived they only received an average of $2.00 an hour after the farmer unilaterally, and illegally, changed the terms of their contract. Moreover, the farmer confiscated the passports and would not return them even when one worker wanted to return to Mexico to be with his wife who was about to give birth to their first child. Faced with a total loss of freedom, the workers staged a citizen’s arrest of the farmer to demand the return of their passports and compliance with the contract. After the protest, the workers were fired and now seek work off the books to be able to pay off of their crushing debts before returning home.
The workers confirmed that they received no pre-departure information about their rights or where to turn if they employers did not live up to the contractual commitments. They all agreed that this information would have greatly helped them face their exploitative employers. They felt utterly ignorant, alone, and angry. Upon hearing the mission of Global Workers they were encouraged and stressed that coordinated legal support back home was important to achieve justice against their recruiters. Both groups of workers want their recruiters and employers to be charged for violating human trafficking laws in the USA and Mexico and Brazil. Global Workers will work with them to ensure that this happens.