If it wasn’t for these worker visas, employers might have to pay a living wage and provide safe working conditions! Can’t have that:
NEW ORLEANS—Yesterday, a jury awarded over $14 million in damages to the plaintiffs of David v. Signal International, the first of a series of lawsuits that together constitute one of the largest human trafficking and forced labor cases in U.S. history. After more than four weeks of testimony and several days of deliberations, the jury found that marine construction company Signal International and its agents engaged in human trafficking, forced labor and racketeering, among other violations.
It is “an historic verdict,” said Alan Howard, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, “finding damages against every defendant on every single claim that we brought, and finding punitive damages against every defendant for every claim for which we were entitled to ask for punitive damages.” Signal must pay over $12 million to the five plaintiffs, while the company’s recruiter and its immigration lawyer must pay over $900,000 each.
The original suit, filed on behalf of almost 600 Indian welders and pipefitters, alleged that the workers had been lured to the United States with false promises of green cards, which enable permanent residency. They paid $11,000-25,000 in recruiting fees for the opportunity, the complaint said, selling property, pawning jewelry, and taking out high-interest loans to finance the fees. The suit was brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights organization, which enlisted the cooperation of several top law firms to litigate multiple cases pro bono after the original was not certified as a class action.
While the workers believed they were paying to immigrate permanently, they actually came to the US on visas for temporary work. In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Gulf Coast company Signal International brought in the skilled welders and pipefitters from India through the H-2B federal guestworker program. Under the terms of the program, H-2B visa holders can work only for the company that sponsors them; it is meant to help U.S. companies fill seasonal or temporary labor shortages. Signal said it could not find enough skilled workers domestically after the devastation and displacement of Hurricane Katrina, so in 2006 the company contracted with a network of recruiters and labor brokers to bring the Indian workers on H-2B visas to its worksites in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and Orange, Texas.
When the workers arrived, they were unpleasantly surprised to discover their accommodations: “man camps,” as they were referred to throughout the trial, where they were housed in trailers with 24 men and just two toilets each. They complained of unsanitary conditions, lack of privacy, and constant noise from proximity to the worksites, which operated day and night.
Which political party’s policies allowed for this to happen? Which political party supports the H-2B visas? The answer is that both the Democrats and the Republicans are complicit in this illegal activity.
It was Bush the elder who came up with NAFTA. It was Clinton who pushed for its final passage. (Barbara Bush, “Bill is like a son to me.”)
It was the Republicans, specifically Phil Gramm and his wife Wendy of Enron, who came up with the idea of doing away with the Glass-Steagall Act. It was Clinton who saw that it happened.
It was the Republicans who for years wanted to reduce welfare benefits for the most needy. It was Clinton who got that legislation passed.
It was the Republicans who wanted to end the hangover of the Vietnam War. It was Clinton who used the War Powers Act 60 times to soften up the American people about new wars.
It is the Republicans who want deregulated Capitalism to be the order of the day in America. It’s the Democrats who have backed that proposition at every turn.
Now we have another Bush and another Clinton competing for the highest office in the land. The American people must be the stupidest people on earth.
“The American people must be the stupidest people on earth.”
What lead’s you two that occlusion?
What’s the ‘over-under’ on the number of days until the Southern Poverty Law Center is vilified and endlessly attacked, just like completely innocent ACORN? Nothing says Republican Party like “Slave Labor.”