NOLA reconstruction workers challenge extortion by officials & “labor coyotes”
by Anonymous Friday, Jan. 13, 2006 at 5:10 PM
(504) 520-0274

Apache Nation members, transported to a largely-immigrant workers’ camp by a “herder” or “labor coyote” who brokered a deal with New Orleans officials, are now told they owe money to the City, and are faced with eviction. Other groupings of immigrant workers in the camp report that they have also suddenly been approached with demands of payment and threats of eviction.

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NOLA reconstruction workers challenge extortion by officials & “labor coyotes”
Apache workers are told to “pay or be evicted”; labor camp conditions are also illegal

New Orleans – Apache Nation members, transported to a largely-immigrant workers’ camp by a “herder” or “labor coyote” who brokered a deal with New Orleans officials, are now told they owe money to the City, and are faced with eviction. Other groupings of immigrant workers in the camp report that they have also suddenly been approached with demands of payment and threats of eviction.

Laborers at the camp are meeting to share information and plan their response. They also plan to give voice to the inhumane living conditions offered in the camp, which houses approximately 150-200 FEMA- and City-employed day laborers.

“There are no facilities here, no running water, no electricity. All our stuff gets soaked in the rain,” said a worker from the group. “It’s a bad situation.”

City officials this week verbally informed the 28 White Mountain Apache workers that they owed “rent” for their City Park campsite: $1200 demanded by the officials includes a period of time starting several weeks before the workers’ arrival, and one month for which they had already paid but been denied a receipt. Initially, the group moved to pay the asked amount, but balked when City officials again refused to provide a receipt. No written notice of the amount due has been provided to the workers, nor has any official information about how or to whom payments should be made. However, police are expected to evict them on the evening of Saturday, Jan. 14.

“We had a big fire on the White Mountain reservation a year and a half ago, and we never charged rent to FEMA or the workers who came out to help rebuild our land,” said a worker from the Apache Nation group. “This situation just seems wrong.”

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