Indian Workers Start 'Hunger Strike for Justice'

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Indian workers launched a hunger strike Wednesday morning to demand the US and Indian governments investigate worker exploitation faced by guest workers in the Gulf Coast. Supporters chanted “Inquilab, zindabad” ("long live revolution") while workers opened the water-only hunger strike with silent prayers and ceremonial first drinks of water. “We have let the US and Indian governments know our demands but they have only given us words, not actions,” said Sony Sulekha, one of the hunger strikers. “We stand here to say that until we have victory, the strike will continue.” The workers – former employees of marine construction company Signal International, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman – walked off the job in March and began a truth-action tour to protest and expose Signal’s human trafficking violations and worker abuse through President Bush's H2B visa guest worker program (DC Jobs with Justice Corner: Indian Workers to Stage Hunger Strike in DC 5/8/08 UC). Speaking through a translator, workers detailed the situation they faced while working for Signal, including being forced to pay Signal $1,050 a month to live 24 to a trailer. “We came to the US for the promise of the American Dream, but instead we were put in a camp and treated like slaves,” said former Signal worker Sabulal Vigayan. When Vigayan and some of his co-workers organized, Signal sent armed guards into the camp and locked them up. Hundreds of workers walked off the job in protest and Vigayan and the other organizers were eventually released, but Signal continued to intimidate and threaten workers. “We escaped Signal’s labor camps and went straight to the Department of Justice and yet we are being treated like criminals, living under the threat of deportation every day,” said Muruganantham Kandhasami. Dozens of additional workers are expected to join the hunger strike at the end of May if the workers’ demands – which include allowing the workers to stay in the US and participate in a Department of Justice investigation of Signal; Congressional hearings into abuses of Gulf Coast workers under the guest worker program; and Indian government action to protect future Indian workers – are not met. Click here to support the workers’ struggle.
- report/photos by Andy Richards