[Marxism] Over 100 Indian shipyard workers stage walkout in Mississippi

[Anand Gopal <ksalalah@xxxxxxxxx>]

Date: Mar 7, 2008 5:44 AM
Subject: HUMAN RIGHTS: Over 100 Indian shipyard workers stage walkout  
in Mississippi
To: SAJA E-mail Discussion List <saja-disc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

 From SAJAforum, the newsy SAJA blog - new desi stuff daily:
http://www.sajaforum.org

 From http://www.sajaforum.org/2008/03/human-rights-ov.html

by Arun Venugopal, SAJAforum editor and WNYC
correspondent, arunvenu@xxxxxxxxx

Over a hundred Indian H2B workers at a shipyard in Pascagoula,  
Mississippi
staged a walkout this morning. The shipyard is run by Signal  
International,
and the workers contend they've been lured into a human trafficking ring
created by the company in the aftermath of Katrina, which resulted in a
severe worker shortage. They plan to "report themselves to the  
Department of
Justice as victims of trafficking, and demand federal prosecution of
Signal."

The walkout was covered by
WLOX-TV<http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=7977223>(click to see a
small image of the walkout), and describes workers
symbolically throwing their hardhats over a fence and then singing  
"We Shall
Overcome" in their "native language." It quotes Saket Soni of the New
Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice, who served as an  
interpreter for
the workers:

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."

The workers say they paid $20,000 each in order to come to America.  
One of
the workers, *Sabulal Vijayan* (a Malayali, presumably), tried to  
organize
his fellow workers last year and was fired. He then attempted suicide.

*Read the rest of the SAJAforum post and get contact information for the
workers here:
http://www.sajaforum.org/2008/03/human-rights-ov.html

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