Rep. Ellison Joins Faith and Labor Leaders in Urging Release of Jailed Workers
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Barb Kucera, editor of Workday Minnesota, follows up on the Indian guest workers who this past spring and summer waged a hunger strike for justice. The welders and pipe fitters had been lured from their native India to the United States with promises of green cards and good jobs at Signal International’s shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. Once there, they found themselves held in modern-day forced labor, victims of a human-trafficking scheme under the guise of the H-2B guest worker program. Now, 23 of the workers have been jailed by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Community leaders in Minnesota—including Congressman Keith Ellison and the Rev. Craig Johnson, bishop of the Minneapolis Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America—issued a call for the release of 23 workers from India held in the Fargo, N.D., jail by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Screen Actors Voting on Strike Action, and More Bargaining News
Members of the Screen Actors (SAG) are voting on whether to authorize a strike—and more news here from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
WORK STOPPAGES AND ACTIONS SAG, Studios: The Screen Actors (SAG) set a date for their strike authorization ballot over the union’s TV and movie contract with studios and producers, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). SAG will send out ballots Jan. 2 and make the results public on Jan. 23. SAG’s contract with AMPTP ran out on June 30. AMPTP has denounced the plan, and posted their last offer on their website.
