NEW ORLEANS WORKERS' CENTER FOR RACIAL JUSTICE
www.neworleansworkerjustice.org

*** JUNE 11, 2008 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***

Indian trafficking survivors suspend hunger strike on Day 29 after huge political gains
Workers celebrate support, vow to fight on as allies hold solidarity rallies in 10 US cities

WASHINGTON, DC – On Wednesday, June 11, 2008, about 150 Indian labor trafficking survivors and supporters rallied at the Department of Justice headquarters, where the workers suspended their hunger strike on Day 29 after an unprecedented outpouring of support from US Congressmen and leaders from labor, civil rights, and religious communities.

"Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act because we recognized that modern day slavery exists and that workers trafficked into the United States should be able to place their faith in the United States justice system," Rep. Dennis Kucinich said at the rally, one week after he and 17 Congressional colleagues sent a letter to the Department of Justice urging legal protections for the workers while it investigates their case. "Today, we must make sure we don't betray their faith in us."

"After 29 days, we are suspending a hunger strike that has brought us more power than any group of H2B guest workers in the United States has ever had," said Sabulal Vijayan, an organizer with the Indian Workers' Congress. "We have the confidence to suspend our hunger strike today because we have faith in these allies to fight alongside us until the traffickers are brought to justice."

The vast support for the workers' fight for justice against the labor trafficking chain of Signal International and its recruiters was clear from the speakers at Wednesday's rally, which included:

• US Congressman Dennis Kucinich
• Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickeled and Dimed
• Rev. Graylan Hagler, Senior Minister, Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ
• Jon Hiatt, General Counsel, AFL-CIO
• John Cavanagh, director, Institute of Policy Studies
• John Flynn, President, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers
• Sarita Gupta, Executive Director, Jobs With Justice
• Indian Workers' Congress organizer Sabulal Vijayan
• Saket Soni, director, New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice

www.neworleansworkerjustice.org

Why did these workers begin a hunger strike?

Because after an 18-month struggle, it is their last resort for bringing the labor trafficking ring of Signal International and its US and Indian recruiters to justice.

To expose abuses of the US guest worker visa program for the good of all workers—other foreign guest workers facing exploitation by companies like Signal, and American workers who are locked out of jobs by employers who favor of cheap, exploitable foreign guest workers.

How did they get here?

In late 2006, US and Indian recruiters defrauded over 500 Indian workers of $20,000 apiece for an American dream—false promises of good work and green cards—and delivered them to an American nightmare: temporary 10-month visas binding them to one employer, deplorable conditions at Signal International shipyards, and constant threats of deportation from the company.

When workers started to organize in March 2007, Signal hired armed private security who detained and attempted to forcibly deport the organizers, driving one of them to a suicide attempt, then fired them. Workers continued to organize, and in March 2008, 120 of them escaped from Signal’s labor camps, reported the company and its recruiters to the Department of Justice’s Criminal Anti-Trafficking Unit, and filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the traffickers.

After the walkout, nearly 100 of the workers made a 10-day pilgrimage in the steps of US civil rights leaders from New Orleans to Washington, DC, while being covertly surveilled, and intimidated by Immigration authorities—including outside the Civil Rights Memorial Centerin Montgomery, AL. While the workers struggle to bring criminal traffickers to justice, Immigration is treating them like criminals.

What makes this human trafficking?

Though many people associate human trafficking only with sex slavery, the Department of Justice says human trafficking is “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of subjecting that person to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.”

That’s just what happened here. Defrauded, then trapped between an ocean of debt at home and constant threats of deportation at Signal, these workers, like many guest workers in the US, became forced laborers.

When the guest workers organized, Signal used physical force against the organizers to force the other workers to continue working under deplorable and illegal conditions, violating criminal statutes against human trafficking and forced labor.

What are their demands?

That the US government grant them the right to participate in an ongoing Department of Justice investigation into Signal and the recruiters by granting them Continued Presence in the US under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act until the investigation is completed.

That US Congress hold hearings into the widespread abuses of the guest worker visa program to expose the truth: that the programs are a being used as a legal form of modern-day slavery, locking American workers out while they lock exploitable foreign workers in.

That the Indian government press the United States for justice in this case and a comprehensive labor agreement that will protect the rights of future workers.