The plight of South Asian (mostly Malayalee) indentured servants workers employed by Signal International at shipyards in Pascagoula, Mississippi started gaining notice in more of the mainstream media late last week, and this week should see the sad story gain even greater visibility…and a stronger reaction on behalf of the workers. First, a quick background on the situation, in which these workers, among many other immigrant laborers, were brought over to help clean up the mess left behind by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita work at the shipyards (but many others to do hurricane recovery work):
About 100 Indian workers walked off their jobs at Signal International, a Pascagoula shipyard Thursday.
They talk of broken promises and shattered dreams. The Indian workers came to America for job opportunity. They now face the risk of being deported after quitting their jobs at Signal and accusing the company of illegal “human trafficking…”“I slit my wrists to kill myself. There was no other option for me. I didn’t know what I was doing. The situation forced me to do so. I was in a horrible situation. Signal was retaliating against me for organizing my people for our rights,” he told the group of fellow workers and visiting media.
They talk of living “like pigs in a cage” in a company-run “work camp.”
“I’ve been a guest worker all my life. I’ve never seen these kinds of conditions,” said the interpreter, “We lived 24 people to a room. And for this, the company deducted $1,050 a month from our paychecks…” [Link]
This sounds more like Dubai than Pascagoula! Although ~100 workers picketed, there are actually 4-6 times that many who are stuck in the same situation but didn’t want to expose themselves in such a high profile manner, or have their families worry about them. For additional background I point you to SAJA’s coverage and also to Maitri’s blog. This ABC news article has a link to an inspiring slideshow wherein the workers are photographed ceremonially casting off their hard hats, the symbols of their servitude, as if they were shackles. In response, Signal issued this press release
saying that the accusations are “baseless.” Uh huh.
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Evidence of “baseless” accusations by the workers |
Is there an impending lawsuit on behalf of these workers? Arun Venugopal at the SAJA forum blog starts his post this way:
For several months I’ve been seeing mention of a job opening for a Malayalam-and-Hindi speaking paralegal at the Southern Poverty Law Center, in Alabama. I couldn’t imagine what the exact need was, but much as I tried, I couldn’t get a full answer from the people at SPLC. Clearly, there was some sort of litigation in the works and they didn’t want to tip their hand. All they could say was that there an “increasing number of Indian guestworkers seeking assistance from our office with labor trafficking and exploitation as part of a larger trend that involves recruiting workers from farther away and charging increased recruitment fees…” [Link]
For those of you legal-eagle mutineers in search of an honest mutiny to join, there is still a job opening at the SPLC:
Bilingual Paralegal
Legal
Full time
The Immigrant Justice Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center is seeking a bilingual (Hindi and English) paralegal for its Immigrant Justice Project. The Project represents low-income immigrants in high-impact employment and civil rights cases throughout nine states in the South.
This is a one year position, with a heavy focus on preparing applications for immigration relief on behalf of workers who are victims of human trafficking and other crimes. Extensive travel is required. The paralegal should be fluent in Malayalam or Hindi A commitment to immigrant rights is essential.
The paralegal will perform extensive outreach to clients and assist with field investigations, preparation of immigration documents, discovery, and trial preparation. The paralegal will also assist the Center’s attorneys with case management and support, conduct research, and organize information. [Link]
<
p>There are other organizations looking to help these workers as well. One of the more prominent ones is the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice. They have published this heartbreaking look at many of the situations/stories in which workers (both native and immigrant) have been exploited during the hurricane recovery efforts. Here is the story of Pravit, a South Asian worker:
“It was scary because there were troops patrolling the area all the time. We were afraid that if the soldiers arrested us, they would deport us.“We stayed in three different hotels…[The third hotel] was ruined. It had no electricity or hot water. We couldn’t drink the water there. We had to stand in line at the water truck to be rationed water. We had to light candles to cook in the evening…[our supervisor] told us we had to draw the curtains in the evening so no light would show. He said the hotel was declared off limits and we weren’t supposed to be staying there. I didn’t feel good. We had to hide at that hotel.
“While we were at the third hotel, we ran out of money for food and propane…and we ran out of rice. We had no food and we were hungry. We told our supervisor. He said he didn’t have any money, either, and that the owners of the places we were cleaning had paid our main boss our wages but the main boss had taken all the money and gone back to North Carolina.
“At this time I felt helpless.”
<
p>Returning to the plight of the Signal workers, the Indian government is now getting “involved”:
Even as their Mumbai-based recruiters tried to wash their hands off workers protesting over inhuman living conditions in Pascagoula, Mississippi, Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi has written to the Indian ambassador in Washington to investigate the matter.
The minister’s letter comes after Hindustan Times reported on the plight of the 120-odd Indian workers on Saturday. “I’ve written to the ambassador,” Ravi said. “I’ve also asked him to send a team of officials to the shipyard.” Added Rahul Chhabra, Embassy of India spokesman in Washington: “We are ascertaining full details from our consulate in Houston, which is looking into the matter…”Dewan Consultants Pvt Ltd, the Mumbai-based recruiter for Signal International, distanced itself from the controversy saying its contract with the workers had ended last year.
“Our responsibility ended as soon as their probation period got over. Legally, we are not responsible for what happened afterward,” said Sachin Dewan, MD, Dewan Consultants Pvt Ltd.
He added: “If they found the living conditions unfit, they should have come back then, instead of making a hue and cry now…” [Link]
The funny thing is that Signal International’s “news” page doesn’t mention any of this. I wonder why?
If you want to ask them you can contact them here:
Corporate Office
P.O. Box 7007
Pascagoula, MS 39568
601 Bayou Casotte Parkway
Pascagoula, MS 39581
Phone: 228-762-0010
More on this topic soon… (and expect to see new SM banners soon featuring these mutineers).
Correction: This particular incident is not directly tied to the Katrina or Rita clean-ups. This is just about being exploited working at the shipyards. However, the hurricanes caused a massive worker shortage which is why these men were brought over.
Update: Here is a copy of the lawsuit filed on behalf of the workers by SPLC, the Worker’s Center for Racial Justice, and the Asian American Legal Defense Fund
KURIAN DAVID, SONY VASUDEVAN SULEKHA,
PALANYANDI THANGAMANI,
MARUGANANTHAM KANDHASAMY, HEMANT
KHUTTAN, ANDREWS ISSAC PADAVEETTIYL,
and DHANANJAYA KECHURU, on behalf of other
similarly situated individuals, and SABULAL
VIJAYAN, KRISHAN KUMAR, JACOB JOSEPH
KADDAKKARAPPALLY, KULDEEP SINGH, AND
THANASEKAR CHELLAPPAN, individually,
Plaintiffs,
v.
SIGNAL INTERNATIONAL LLC, MALVERN C.
BURNETT, GULF COAST IMMIGRATION LAW
CENTER, L.L.C., LAW OFFICES OF MALVERN C.
BURNETT, A.P.C., INDO-AMERI SOFT L.L.C.,
KURELLA RAO, J & M ASSOCIATES, INC. OF
MISSISSIPPI, GLOBAL RESOURCES, INC.,
MICHAEL POL, SACHIN DEWAN, and DEWAN
CONSULTANTS PVT. LTD. (a/k/a MEDTECH
CONSULTANTS).
Defendants
Here is one of the many charges:
9. Plaintiffs assert class action claims against Defendants arising from violations oftheir rights under the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (“TVPA”); the
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”); the Civil Rights Act of 1866
(42 U.S.C. § 1981); the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 (42 U.S.C. § 1985); collective action claims
under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA); and claims for damages arising from
fraud/negligent misrepresentation and breach of contract. Plaintiffs Sabulal Vijayan, Jacob
Joseph Kadakkarappally, Kuldeep Singh, Krishan Kumar, and Thanasekar Chellappan also
bring individual claims arising from the retaliation in violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1866
(42 U.S.C. § 1981); the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 (42 U.S.C. § 1985), false imprisonment,
assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and/or negligent infliction of
emotional distress.
A new kind of slavery in the south. What are the odds that Signal is a big contributor to the Republicans?
i inow for a fact that mississippi (MS) is a very racist state. i feel bad for the desis there. hopefully, this will raise awareness that UAE and dubai aren’t the only slaveholder-societies in the world and that americans are too damn lazy to do the work on their own.
This is a classic example of hiring as many middle men as it takes to “properly” distance yourself from the slavery which you are enabling.
I won’t argue about that “fact” but it is important to note that this could have happened in any state. This is purely about corporate greed and an entire industry whose sole purpose is to profit off government dollars for the re-building effort. That means find the cheapest labor possible so you can take the largest cut. My gut tells me that if the workers were from Iceland instead of India, the same exploitation would be happening.
4 · Abhi said
Agreed. It’s about maintaining the bottom line and the Indian workers are convenient and plentiful. If there was a surplus of labor in the shipping business from [insert any country here], they’d be victims down there, too. I’m interested if there have been any Safety and Health inspections and audits from the government. Unsafe and poor working/living conditions, regardless of background (domestic/foreign) is a no go.
This is the opportunity for the companies who employ Signal’s services to hold them to a standard of humanity, not just ones of employee/contractor safety or finished goods quality – they are not measures enough, by themselves. I believe that the responsibility and the influence lies with procurement teams and project management teams at those companies who employ the Signals of the world, to demand the humanity standard – and if Signal had not directly contracted these folks’ services, then to demand that Signal ensure the standard of their 3rd-party contracting agency.
Suppliers’ relationships with their companies are only as good until the first scrutiny or complaint…if no questions raised, or no bar set for a standard – then the supplier will give the company employing them exactly what you asked for – nothing.
This is not the first or last time this will happen; I remember my mother was called upon to give a voice to men like these back in the late 80s/early 90s – and it was shocking then. It shouldn’t be a shock, then or now – the companies retaining Signal’s services should know to set the standard, and Signal should know better where to set their own standard – and hold to that standard.
Incidentally, I believe that the pipe fitters and welders in theJohn C. Pickle case (in which so many testified about confiscated visas and forced illegal deportations as the tip of the iceberg) are still awaiting judgement due to the company president’s shenanigans.
From the Tulsa World article linked above:
At the time of the judgment, government attorneys described it as the largest verdict of its kind, setting an important national precedent for cases of alleged human trafficking. The Pickle factory, which manufactured equipment used in oil refining and energy production, is now closed.
Here is the EEOC’s original press release regarding the discrimination lawsuit against John C. Pickle Company (to replace the registration-required link above – sorry!).
It’s not just racism at work here though prejudices could be at work in putting less of a priority on worker conditions. I wouldnt be shocked if some Indians were involved at some stage in the process at procuring these poor guys.
Abhi, thanks for the article. I’ve been following SPLC’s work for some time now.
We’re all in racist states. It’s simply that more educated folks are better at hiding it in their words, but the structural racism is still there in wealthy societies.
And where’s Anna?!
Socialists at work :o)
-Faux Bengali
thanks for covering this. If most of the workers are malyalee, the paralegal search should highlight malayalam and not hindi.
The John Pickle story was discussed on “This American Life” radio program last year. Here is the link to the episode where they talk to reporters and individuals directly involved with the case. It might be of interest to hear the workers tell their story directly.
I think this sort of thing must have been going on for a while but is now slowly coming to the forefront in various parts of the US since the workers realize that they have resources available… which in turn, hopefully, will create new resources to meet their need for legal aid and protection.
At least these workers had their feet on solid ground. This company keeps its workers in a ship moored 3 miles off-shore to blatantly avoid any US labor laws.
I don’t think the primary grievance is the living conditions. The other articles I read on this indicate that the Indian recruiters (Dewan ?) were claiming that there was a straightforward path to a US greencard and charged huge fees (upwards of $10k) for the jobseekers, who in many cases sold all their assets to raise this sum. Then they come here and find out that they’ve been lied to and will have to start all over again when they return to India
Much as I know many people would love to find out that they had contributed to multiple right-wing causes, I was only able to find one contribution from Signal International and that was for $250 to Amy Tuck (Republican) for Lieutenant Governor in Mississippi in 2003. As has been suggested here, I think this is more about corporate greed in knowing that they can pretty much get away with this kind of thing, especially in the south where immigrant networks are perhaps not as well set up as in major cities in the north (although that’s partially just based on my own observations and some speculation).
Hopefully if the SPLC comes down hard, they will make it much more difficult for this kind of thing to happen in the future, at least as quietly as it does today. As with all cases involving human trafficking, one of the keys is not just action here but education back in the countries of origin so that people don’t fall for the lies being chucked about so recruiters can make a buck or two.
I seriously think that American govt. should do away with this H1B program. It seems to be breeding too much of problems. Instead whoever wants to work in US should be given a green-card. This puts indirect pressure on both American industry and govt. to do something sincere (like training etc.) for any American workforce deficiency and also doesn’t lead to exploitation or any other kind of immigration problems.
Is this a coincidence?
Abhi,
Thanks for getting this story out, minutes before I was to send you a note to post it!
A bit more context surrounding the issue:
a) These workers didn’t get here until 2006, by which time Katrina cleanup in the actual-hurricane-hit Mississippi was mostly done. Many foreign workers were indeed hired to do cleanup after the hurricanes, “thanks” to Bush’s relaxation of the Davis-Bacon act whcih ensures a minimum wage for construction workers, but I don’t think that tehse workers fall under that category. To this day, in many parts of the Gulf South after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we suffer a severe shortage of American workers, as they have left the area and moved on to greener pastures. As I say in the post which you link to above, this isn’t the first instance of foreign-worker revolt in this area since the storms and flood. with respect to the lowest common economic denominator, foreign is the new black here.
b) The workers staged a protest a block away from my house at noon today, and are becoming more vocal about the issue. The local newsmedia is finally on it today, but I want to find out from Saket Soni (the local workers’ rights activist whom I mention in my post) why the story took so long to hit the public in this fashion.
c) This issue should be important to anyone, on either side of the political fence. Too many New Orleanian problems, including housing, demolitions, schools and crime, have been co-opted by one political cause or the other and have, thus, lost their overall meaning and are written off by the general public. I don’t want this to happen to these men, because they are foreign nationals and have a lot less legal recourse than Americans. What should be avoided, at all costs, is their deportation, following which the cycle continues with another set of “cheap and expendable” workers.
Finally, boston_mahesh, Mississippi is in the deep south and can be a state which is a lot more visibly racist than, say, Massachusetts. It is still an American state, however, and that makes this an American problem. Additionally, Signal International is an international marine fabrication company that makes submersible drilling rigs, and not just any ol’ shipyard. As we didn’t write off the collapse of the Big Dig or, worse, the 9/11 tragedy, as the onus of the East Coast, please don’t relegate America’s longstanding problems with racism and worker’s rights to the south.
Naina posted on this here last March, and included a link to a Democracy Now! interview of both Sabulal Vijayan and Saket Soni. Forbes carried a piece on it last June.
The case involving the Indian workers and their alleged exploitation is more than a year old. Sometime in 2006, hundreds of welders and pipefitters, mostly from Kerala, responded to a series of advertisement placed by a recruiting company run by Mumbai-based Sachin Dewan promising green cards and permanent residency in US. Over 600 workers from all around India and some from the Gulf paid Dewan up to Rs 10 lakh (about $ 25,000 in today’s rates), often selling their homes and raising loans, for the promised “American dream”.
When they arrived in US, they discovered that there were no green cards. Instead, the workers found themselves working for Signal International, a major marine construction company, on ten-month “H-2B’’ visa that bonded them to work for it.
Trafficking racket: Indian workers file case against US employer
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Trafficking_racket_Indian_workers_file_case_against_US_employer/articleshow/2852060.cms
An eye-opening “This American Life” episode had interviews with the workers themselves, who describe the inhumane conditions these guys worked in. The episode also features an interview with the author of a book about the mistreatment of laborers (“The dark side of the new global economy”), and the most shocking aspect is how delusional Pickle seems to have been – he genuinely thought he was a messiah to those whom he treated as less than human.
why not ?
Very sad. The Desi fellow who took all the life savings is vermin
As usual, the Indian government won’t prosecute this asshole.. Like I said, it is no shocker that INdians were involved in this too.
Yep. The way to go forward would be to revive the Dubai Ports deal & outsource the torture to those with the experience!
23 · melbourne desi said
What do they have once they go back home? The opportunity to face their family’s loss and debtors. Monetary repayment of some substantial sort should go hand in hand with repatriation.
24 · Pravin said
Actually, the Indian Govt seems to have acted pretty quickly on this one – they’ve suspended operating licenses for two firms recruiting for Signal in Mumbai, and have issued ‘show-cause’ notices asking why action (presumably including prosecution) should not be taken against them.
Link
Frankly, I’m quite pleasantly surprized by how quickly the Government seems to have moved on this. It seems to acknowledge a level of responsibility to look out for the welfare of Indians, especially Indian workers, overseas that I’ve never noticed before.
and who would pay this ? American taxpayers? Signal? I am all for the company paying compensation but highly unlikely. Now, the real solution would be grant them ‘Green Cards’ but I doubt if the US govt will do this in an election year. My recommendation would be to go back and restart life. Write this off as a bad dream. Cousins and uncles have been cheated by unscrupulous ‘Gulf’ agents in the 80s – so am not unaware of these situations.
To take the point of Chachaji, Govt of India had a ECNR scheme for several years that was originally designed to protect the illiterate – now scrapped.
Melbourne Desi,
To your point of ECNR, I think the “scheme” is still there, there is something called an ECR (Emmigration Check Required) passports need clearence to work in any of the 18 listed countries.
You are correct Vivek, the key for me is that it has only been taken of in 2007 for people travelling for purposes other than work. As these workers were on H2B visas and if US had been on the list there could have been a better control.
The news is now on the CNN front page http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/11/h2b.workers.suit.ap/index.html
31 · umber desi said
That’s a good point, but the standards for getting the Emigration Check Not Required (ECNR) stamp these days aren’t that high (linkamajig). I bet a lot of these guys would have ECNR status by virtue of either their education or their time spent in other countries or both.
I am a worker in signal internation, all this is done by the kerala worker WHO ARE NOT WORKING IN SIGNAL OR GOT FIRED . I am here to make some money for my family . In india i did not stay in taj mahal .I am like regular indian guy from bombay (mumbai) This guys are just problem maker.Empty vessels makes more sound .Right now there are 6 person in bunk and we are getting paid $18.00 hrs . the food is ok (goat ,chicken, shrimp. fish , vegetable roti) where do we eat every week this choices in india?
34 · ravi reddy said
they wouldn’t have staged a damn revolt if the conditions were decent.
and this is awesome. i’m waiting for shit like this to go down in dubai and saudi.
The room in the photograph is a little cramped, but is well lit and air conditioned so I don’t see what the fuss is about. Chances are the conditions at the employee dormitories were better than they lived in at India.
From what I understand of the problem is that Signal was hiring specialized skilled labor for it’s jobs on the cheap. Prest-O Change-O they outsourced. Unfortunately corruption on the Indian end of the outsourcing company led to two problems, a) many of the workers lied about their skills and were not qualified for the job b) the outsourcing agents lied claiming that these were permanent jobs leading to green cards in order to extract money from jobseekers. The claim about slave-like conditions by the protesters are essentially a way of avoiding get sent back to India.
The simplest solution is for the Indian police to fine the recruiting agents and get back to “job-placement” fees and for the workers to go home. However for the protesters in question, this is a sub-optimal arrangement when in fact their primary goal is actually staying and living in the U.S.
Truly? If so, time will tell.
Funny – Mr. Pickle said much the same thing about the pipe fitters and welders he was
employingexploiting. The idea that just because one is not used a certain standard means they don’t deserve a lot better doesn’t hold water with me. Who gets to be the arbiter of that standard, the employer? And if so, why wouldn’t – shouldn’t – the employer offer what is competitive to the labor in the local market?Perhaps this is an opportunistic lawsuit, perhaps not. Ask yourself this, Mr. Reddy: is that $18 per hour competitive for Pascagoula, MS? Is that total compensation? What about per diems? Labor is in high demand in the Gulf Coast, and you should convince yourself that you’re being paid a fair, competitive wage at the very least.
Its a typical Indian manpower exploitation scenario …. from india to Dubai to Bahrain to Saudia arabia ….. and now it is happening in USA…
“they wouldn’t have staged a damn revolt if the conditions were decent.”
Holy insurrection! We live less than 1/4 mile from this Signal International yard… Yet we totally missed this ‘revolt’ going on.
Pretty strong word to use when you’re talking about a relatively small group (out of more than 500) of guys who apparently have a complaint. Personally, we found it a bit irksome that these people were complaining about living 24 to a bunk house that had electricity, flooring, walls, and access to square meals at a time when most of the area’s native population was living 5 to 10 people to a 20 foot FEMA trailer — or, like us, living in a shell of a house that didn’t have any of the aformentioned amenities.
Signal’s press release: http://wlox.images.worldnow.com/images/incoming/SignalPressRelease.pdf