by Mike Hall, May 21, 2008

Last week, Indian hunger strikers and supporters protested outside the Indian Embassy in Washington, D.C.

This morning, Christopher Glory, in the eighth day of a water-only hunger strike to demand the U.S. government put an end to the abuses in a visa program that workers’ rights advocates liken to human trafficking, was rushed to a Washington, D.C., hospital for strike-related health problems.

A spokesman for the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice (NOWCRJ) says that Glory’s condition was improving and he could be released soon.

Several hours later, his four fellow hunger strikers and about 100 other Indian welders and pipe fitters who were lured to the United States with promises of good-paying jobs in Gulf Coast shipyards and permanent residence status, went to Capitol Hill to urge Congress to halt moves to expand the H-2B guest worker program.

Hunger striker Paul Konar says their actions reach beyond their own situation.

This is not about green cards, it is about justice. We want to win not just for us, but for workers who come after us. The United States is a wonderful country. People come here with hope but some end up in modern-day slavery like we experienced….It is an insult that that while we are waiting to tell Congress how companies like Signal are turning guest workers into forced laborers, Congress is trying to figure out how to bring more.

In 2006, after many sold their homes and other assets to pay recruiters $20,000 for visas through the H-2B guest worker program for jobs in Signal Corp.’s Pascagoula, Miss., shipyard, the workers found themselves in modern-day forced labor. They lived 24 workers to a cramped container—at a cost of more than $1,000 per month each. Toilet and shower facilities were few, and even though food was intolerable, the workers say they were not allowed off-site to purchase groceries and other supplies.

When they protested the conditions, they were threatened with deportation. When they tried to form a union, the company sent armed guards to detain some of the organizers, then fired them without cause.

In letter to Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, the hunger strikers say that since filing a federal lawsuit alleging human trafficking by Signal, they have been under surveillance by federal immigration authorities and they fear they may be deported. They ask Miller to request the Department of Justice:

Release us from the terror of covert surveillance and deportation through a grant of continued presence…so that we may safely participate in the…anti-trafficking investigation. The investigation is critical both to bring these traffickers to justice and to expose how transnational trafficking rings, including U.S. corporations, recruiters and lawyers are manipulating the structural power imbalances in the U.S. guest worker program.

They also are seeking congressional hearings into abuses in the H-2B program. Says NOWCRJ Director Saket Soni.

Companies like Signal are using the program to hollow out key American industries like hospitality, shipbuilding and construction. They are replacing well-paid U.S. workers with exploitable, temporary guest workers. 

Konar says the hunger strike, across the street from the White House, will continue. The strikers’ blood pressure and other vital signs are monitored regularly, and doctors and nurses are on 24-hour call if needed.

You can help the hunger strikers by making a donation to their struggle. Please send checks to the National Immigration Law Center, 3435 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 2850, Los Angeles, CA 90010. Put NOWCRJ/IWC in the subject line.

If you are in the Washington, D.C., area, please visit and show your support for the hunger strikers in Lafayette Park across from the White House. Click here to follow the hunger strike and for more information on the Indian workers’ struggle.

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