Hurricanes Take Workers’ Homes, Employers Taking Their Rights

by James Parks, May 3, 2006

Workers rebuilding New Orleans after the devastation from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita face dangerous and inhumane working conditions every day. Some employers routinely abuse their rights. Yesterday, hundreds of workers united their voices to demand that New Orleans raise the bar for workers’ rights.

Teachers, construction workers and others who are rebuilding the Big Easy and its communities marched through downtown New Orleans to the federal building to demand that they be treated with respect. The marchers were joined by union lawyers from across the country who are meeting in New Orleans as part of the Lawyers Coordinating Committee.

“The people who are the heart and soul of New Orleans lost not only our homes and way of life after Katrina and Rita—we lost our security, our safety and our dignity,” says Tiger Hammond, president of the Greater New Orleans AFL-CIO. “Companies are exploiting us, exposing us to hazards and walking away with their profits, without any repercussions.”

A coalition of unions, community organizations and clergy is joining together to form a local workers’ rights commission to investigate worker exploitation and develop solutions to reverse the unjust treatment of workers.

The commission will hear stories of the 4,500 New Orleans teachers who lost their jobs, insurance and collective bargaining rights after officials began closing public schools. “We need to open public schools in New Orleans and support the teachers who are working here. It is a horrible injustice that thousands of children are not being educated and thousands of teachers can no longer afford to do the work that they love,” says Larry Carter Jr., who represents the United Teachers of New Orleans and the Louisiana Federation of Teachers.

And they’ll hear about workers who are toiling in hazardous conditions, immigrants who have been exploited by employers and construction workers who have been forced to live in inhumane conditions.

Jeff Steele is one of them. He was recruited from his home in Atlanta by a contractor to clean up debris in the worst affected areas of the city. But he was not paid his full wage and was forced to live in dilapidated housing and work in hazardous conditions.

“I came from Atlanta to be a part of history,” he says. “I wanted to help rebuild New Orleans, and what I found was a shocking indifference to the workers who are rebuilding the city—horrible living conditions and no safety training. Coming here to New Orleans took a part of me that was trying to do good and has left me broke and angry.”

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