Indian Guest Workers Protest Modern-Day Slavery

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Indian guest workers will hold a series of actions in the coming days to pressure Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen to take legal action against their employer for human trafficking and forcing workers into slavery-like working conditions. The workers claim that recruiters for Signal International -- a marine construction company -- promised them decent wages and "green cards" but, when they arrived in the US, were forced into "substandard housing with 24 men crammed into a small room for which they each were charged more than $1,000 a month," reports James Parks on the AFL-CIO Weblog. The workers from India - who filed a lawsuit against the company last week - also claim they paid a $20,000 fee to recruiters in exchange for permanent US residency documents, but were only given a 10-month work visa, Parks reports. The Indian workers will hold a press conference in Dupont Circle today at noon and will rally outside the White House on Monday. Watch UNION CITY! Friday and Monday more info on the upcoming events.