March 28, 2007
Dear friend:
We are the Alliance of Guest Workers for Dignity and we are writing
today to seek your support. We are inaugurating a Worker Action Fund
for visa workers who are risking everything to fight for justice in
the Gulf Coast.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, companies have brought
thousands of workers to the Gulf Coast. They have come from Mexico,
Bolivia, Peru and dozens of other countries. Workers have come here on
legal H2B visas and are routinely exploited. In the last several
months, we have been in contact with workers in rural Westlake,
Louisiana whose passports were taken away and with groups of Indian
shipyard workers in Mississippi who have been held captive by their
company for organizing.
Many workers paid great sums of money for the privilege of coming to
the U.S. on a legal H2B work visa - some paying as much as $20,000,
and putting family farms, personal savings and more in hock to make
enough money. But when H2B workers arrive here, they find themselves
in dangerous, high-injury jobs, making less than they were promised
and often working so few hours that they are unable to earn back the
debt they incurred to come here.
Big companies in the hotel industry, shipbuilding, and metal
fabrication, among others, are experts on how to keep workers quiet.
In fact, in some parts of rural Louisiana, there are billboards that
read "Think a union is organizing in your area? Call XXX for help."
And they're dead serious. These companies have a great deal of
practice with their exploitative tactics. They've used them for years
on poor African American and white residents, and now they have
expanded them to include their next source of cheap labor. For many of
these companies, the destruction caused by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina
were a huge boon. The number of H2B workers in Louisiana spiked after
Hurricane Katrina, when employers took advantage of the displacement
of more organized groups of workers to import a new workstaff that
companies thought would be obedient and stay quiet even under the
worst circumstances.
However, H2B workers are fighting back despite the fact that they run
the risk of deportation and firing. Because of their fierce organizing
- which has included attempted citizen's arrests of bad employers,
press conferences of H2B workers in front of the Department of Labor,
clandestine meetings held at midnight and legal actions including one
active lawsuit and one suit currently in formation - these workers
often run the risk of being fired by their employers.
We are creating this Worker Action Fund to be part of this important
organizing. It will be managed by worker leaders and the staff of the
New Orleans Worker Center and will be distributed democratically based
on need by members of the Alliance of Guest Workers for Dignity. The
fund will support workers in meeting their basic needs so that they
can continue to fight.
To support the H2B workers' organizing through the Worker Strike Fund,
send a check made out to the National Immigration Law Center (our
fiscal sponsor) with "Worker Strike Fund - Worker Center" in the
subject line to: NILC, 3435 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 2850, Los Angeles, CA
90010.
Thank you again for your support and time,
The Alliance of Guest Workers for Dignity
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