House Hearing on Katrina Shows Massive Wage Abuse by No-Bid Contractors

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/06/26/house-hearings-on-katrina-show-massive-wage-abuse-by-no-bid-contractors/

House Hearing on Katrina Shows Massive Wage Abuse by No-Bid Contractors

by Mike Hall, Jun 26, 2007

Workers who headed to New Orleans in 2005 to help rebuild the Hurricane Katrina-devastated city were abused and exploited, according to a report by Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) and testimony from worker groups at a House hearing today.

And says Ted Smukler, IWJ public policy director who testified at the hearing by the House Oversight and Government Reform Domestic Policy Subcommittee:

A series of executive orders by the Bush administration in the wake of Katrina set the stage for a lawless race-to-the-bottom labor market….

After Katrina, immigrants rushed to New Orleans with the promise of good, well-paid work. Those workers were used and exploited, denied their legal wages, exposed to toxins without proper health and safety training and equipment and lived in unspeakable squalor. Those without documents knew if they confronted their bosses or reported abuses to government agencies they could be deported. Meanwhile, the mainly African American displaced workforce was excluded from possibilities of work due to lack of housing, schools, health care and appropriate job training.

The IWJ report, Working on Faith: A Faithful Response to Worker Abuse in New Orleans, surveyed a cross section of 218 Latino, African American, white and other Katrina reconstruction workers in the summer of 2006 and found:

orkers of all races have experienced abuses of fundamental rights, including not receiving wages for their work and non-payment of overtime (wage theft), exposure to toxins without proper safety training or equipment, workplace injuries without workers’ compensation and discrimination.

FULL story at link.

[smtpgirl]

1. What a surprise, massive abuse from no-bid contractors

That is why NOLA stands today in an abyss of RED-TAPE, not bureaucracy, but Republicans!!

[itsrobert]

2. Not immigrants.

"After Katrina, immigrants rushed to New Orleans with the promise of good, well-paid work."

Nice try, but they are undocumented workers taking American jobs.