[PAA-Discuss] FW: Stop Guestworker Exploitation

[Lee Loe]

  _____  

From: Democrats.com [mailto:activist at democrats.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2007 12:41 PM
To: leeloe at igc.org
Subject: Stop Guestworker Exploitation


  <http://archive.democrats.com/images/small.gif> 	


  <http://mail.democrats.com:80/OT000175MTA0MzQx.GIF?D=2007-05-01> Dear Lee,


For too long, our country has reaped economic benefits from the labor of
foreign guestworkers - but has ignored the incredible abuses they endure.
Guestworkers are routinely cheated out of wages; charged exorbitant fees to
obtain low-wage, temporary jobs; virtually enslaved by employers; forced to
live in squalid conditions; and denied medical benefits for injuries. 

I hope you'll sign this petition.
<http://mail.democrats.com/CT00017501MTA0MzQx.HTML?D=2007-05-01>  


Bob Fertik 



 Stop Guestworker Abuse, Southern Poverty Law Center
<http://www.splcenter.org/images/newsletter/calmo.jpg> 	



Southern Poverty Law Center 
Petition to Stop Guestworker Abuse 


Sign our petition
<http://mail.democrats.com/CT00017502MTA0MzQx.HTML?D=2007-05-01>  and help
stop the virtual enslavement and abuse of guestworkers. 

 <http://mail.democrats.com/CT00017504MTA0MzQx.HTML?D=2007-05-01> If you
believe in the American ideals of fairness and human dignity, you'll be
appalled at the way tens of thousands of foreign "guestworkers" are being
systematically exploited in a government-sanctioned program that many
describe as modern-day slavery. 


  <http://www.splcenter.org/images/newsletter/space.gif> 	
"We had no electricity. The first week we were not paid. The second week we
were paid $70." 
- Mexican H-2B worker 

"El patron would put a lock on the gate where our trailers were. After a
time, they would not let us communicate with other people." 
- Mexican H-2A tomato worker 

"I felt like an animal without claws - defenseless. It is the same as
slavery." 
- Dominican H-2B hotel worker 

	
These are the workers, mostly poor Latinos, who are lured here by U.S.
businesses with promises of decent jobs only to be cheated out of their
wages; forced to live in squalid conditions; and denied medical benefits for
injuries. If the workers complain, they face deportation, blacklisting, and
other forms of retaliation. 

We've documented the abuses in a new report - Close to Slavery: Guestworker
Programs in the United States - and are filing lawsuits against the most
abusive employers. 

But there is an ominous cloud on the horizon. 

Right now, President Bush and many in Congress are pushing to create a vast
new pool of temporary foreign workers. This will only cause more suffering
and injustice - and it will undermine the rights and wages of American
workers as well. 

As a nation, we must fix our broken immigration system. But we must not
condone a program that abuses and enslaves poor workers from other countries
who are lured under false pretenses. 

Congress has the opportunity to right this terrible wrong. But lawmakers
will act only if the American people speak out strongly against this moral
outrage. 

 <http://mail.democrats.com/CT00017505MTA0MzQx.HTML?D=2007-05-01> You can
make a difference. Please sign our petition
<http://mail.democrats.com/CT00017503MTA0MzQx.HTML?D=2007-05-01>  to stop
guestworker abuse. 


	

  _____  


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