AP: Immigrants Often Unpaid for Katrina Work

[Eugene]

Immigrants Often Unpaid for Katrina Work

By JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press Writer
Sat Nov 5, 4:31 PM ET

GULFPORT, Miss. - A pattern is emerging as the cleanup of
Mississippi's Gulf Coast morphs into its multibillion-dollar
reconstruction: Come payday, untold numbers of Hispanic immigrant
laborers are being stiffed. Sometimes, the boss simply vanishes.
Other workers wait on promises that soon, someone in a complex
hierarchy of contractors will provide the funds to pay them.

Nonpayment of wages is a violation of federal labor law, but these
workers — thousands of them, channeled into teams that corral debris,
swaddle punctured roofs in blue tarps and gut rain-ravaged homes —
are especially vulnerable because many are here illegally.

<snip>

The passengers were not fed — Ojeda recalls his mouth watering when
he smelled tacos the driver ate — and were discharged near the Naval
Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport, where Ojeda sleepwalked
though his first day clearing hurricane-strewn junk.

The job was supposed to pay $7 an hour. But six weeks later, Ojeda
still hasn't been paid the $600-plus he said he is owed for eight
days of dawn-to-dusk labor.

<snip>

(KBR is the prime contractor in this instance.)

More: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051105/ap_on_bi_ge/katrina_immigrant_workers

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. Nothing would surprise

me about that place anymore.

[nickyt]

2. god damn it. "Send us your poor" and we'll show them what "poor" is n/t

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

3. Compassionate conservatism at its best.

:argh:

[peacebird]

4. why am i not suprised?

Those folks can't afford to be stiffed - they still have to pay their own living expenses... Not that anyone in the administration gives a damn.

Sickening. And I am certain that the officers of kbr are all getting HUGE bonuses for this.

[bluestateguy]

5. I really try to be fair to Mississippi in spite of its racist past

But these kinds of stories make it very hard.

Is Haley Barbour addressing this problem? Or does he not even consider it to be a problem at all? Will we hear more drivel from his office about the need to let the "free market" sort these things out?

[Generic Other]

6. Being on the Halliburton payroll is only lucrative at the top

$12 million contract held by KBR, a firm owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, Halliburton.

[havocmom]

7. Many US corporations LOVE illegal laborers. They save so much $$

stiffing on wages, not paying workmen's comp, not paying into SS for employees who cannot complain, not worrying about decent safety equipment/standards.

And they make sure the federal officials sorta fall down on border protection. Officialdom does not recognize national borders nor do they recognize human rights. Warm bodies working cheap is all that matters. it those bodies can be swindled and abused, it's gravy.

Pig bastards.

[skids]

8. Friend of a friend...

Was talking to a contractor doing Katrina work, who was also pretty politically astute. He was rattling through a list of names saying stuff like "yeah, that guy will steal 2 million laundered through his construction bids, this other guy here is guaranteed to pay low wages and pocket the difference." He went on and on. He figured at least 50% of the construction money would be stolen, not even counting normal SNAFU bungling.