Guest Workers Charge Racial Exploitation, File Federal Suit Against Luxury Hotel Chain : NOLA Indymedia

Decatur owns about a dozen luxury hotels in New Orleans and is one of the largest locally owned hotel chains in Louisiana.

To pay labor recruiters in their home countries, workers from Peru, Bolivia and the Dominican Republic plunged their families into debt. Recruiters charged between $3,500 and $5,000 to bring workers to New Orleans under the federal government’s H-2B “guest worker” program.

“Four thousand dollars is a lot of money in Peru,” said Humberto Jimenez, one of the hotel workers. “I mortgaged my house to work for Patrick Quinn. I came here to make enough money to see my child through college. If I had known the truth I would never have come.”

Recruiters under Quinn’s employ promised workers 40 hours of work per week and plenty of overtime. Instead they found themselves working about 25 hours a week, sometimes far less. “They told me I would find the American dream. I found no dream here. All I have here is debt and nightmares,” said one worker, holding a pay stub. “I earned $18.08 in two weeks. What kind of dream is that?”

Under current immigration law these guest workers are bound to their employer and unable to legally work for anyone else. “They’re on a dead-end road,” said Mary Bauer, attorney for the Immigrant Justice Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Their profound debt makes them desperate to work – but Decatur doesn’t give them enough hours. And if they switch jobs, they’re breaking the law. In effect, they are captive workers in a situation of virtual debt peonage.”

Said Teresa Ortiz, another worker, “It’s modern-day slavery. What are my options? I go home to Bolivia, poorer than when I got here and deeper in debt. Or I break the law to find another job.”

Tracie Washington, a local civil rights attorney, said, “This guest worker program is a continuation of the racial exploitation that began with slavery in this country. It’s corporate-driven. Decatur profits from it. And it’s state-sponsored. The Department of Labor signs off on it.”

To recruit these guest workers, Decatur had to certify to the U.S. government that it could not find U.S. workers to fill these jobs. Indeed, in its request for labor certification, Decatur claims to “have offered work to hurricane evacuees” but that “no one applied.” In a recent meeting with Quinn, guest workers asked for proof that Decatur recruited among African American Katrina evacuees. “He said he would not give us proof,” said Luis Chavez. “He has none. When I started work I said to my manager. ‘This is New Orleans – why are there no Black people working here?’ The manager said, “Because Black people don’t like to work.’ ”

“Guest worker programs are wedge policies that divide African Americans and immigrants,” said Saket Soni of the New Orleans Worker Justice Coalition. “At a time when the unemployment rate in the New Orleans metro area is 7.2 percent these guest workers are lured here and locked into exploitation. Meanwhile African American survivors are locked out of the hotel industry even as they struggle to return home and regain their lives a year after Katrina.”

This competition over jobs is being fueled by employers like Decatur and the government agencies that have failed to enforce labor laws. “These courageous workers are exposing guest worker programs as an opportunity for predatory employers to seek out and exploit cheap labor,” said Marielena Hincapie, Director of Programs at the National Immigration Law Center. As guest worker programs are increasingly seen as the answer to future migration, Hincapie cautioned against expansion of a historically flawed system.

“The solution is for all workers to be afforded decent work opportunities with a living wage in the just reconstruction of the Gulf South,” said Tracie Washington.

One worker speaks about the difficulties of trying to provide for her family in Bolivia and selling off her most valuable belongings to afford recruitment fees, just to find herself so deeply in debt in the US that she can't even afford a trip home.

Workers showcase the H-2B visas that bind them to their employer, which makes it illegal for them to change jobs, no matter how exploitative the employer that first hired them. Those who leave Decatur Hotels, LLC or seek other work become illegal aliens and face deportation.

Local civil rights activist Tracie Washington calls Patrick Quinn out for racial exploitation, as well as taking advantage of the H-2B visa program to hire cheaper immigrant labor instead of hurricane evacuees in need of work back home.

Workers present their collective demand for dignity.

One worker's blown-up paycheck states the $18.08 he made in a two-week period because of the extremely inconsistent work hours, which is not even a chip out of the $3500 - $5000 debt that workers took on through recruitment and travel fees just to get this job opportunity in the United States.

Another employee speaks about the privatization in his home country which has kept wages so low that many are trapped in debt, thus forced to seek employment in the United States. Recruiters promise 40 hours of work a week and plenty of overtime, but these promises are never kept, and most workers are now even further in debt than before.

Three workers emerge from the federal court building after filing suit with their legal representatives on behalf of 82 H-2B guest workers against Decatur Hotels, LLC.

One Dominican worker's H-2B guest worker visa.

Tracie Washington of the NAACP calls for solidarity between African-Americans, Latinos and Latin American immigrants in the struggle against racial exploitation.

Two of the Decatur employees wearing handcuffs to symbolize the modern-day slavery in which the H-2B program has trapped them, as they are forced to decide between not being able to provide for their families under their current employer or breaking the law to seek other work.

Marielena Hincapié, director of programs and staff attorney for the National Immigration Law Center, speaks to the crowd as one of the members of the workers' legal council.

A Dominican workers states that he would not have come to the United States if he had known the truth about the guest worker program. Recruiters' promises brought him to the United States seeking the American Dream, but he said that what the conditions he's living in are instead his worst nightmare; he hasn't received work hours for a month, yet is still paying Decatur $50 per week to share a hotel room with three other people and has to find his own transportation, though free transport was promised by recruiters.

Workers stand with their allies from grassroots organizations and law centers from New Orleans and across the nation.

Mary Bauer, lawyer with the Southern Poverty Law Center and another member of the Decatur employees' legal team, speaks about the lawsuit that seeks to reclaim the $3,500 - $5,000 that each worker paid in recruitment fees, which is required by US law to be reimbursed by the employer.

Workers hold up copies of the legal documents Patrick Quinn filed with the state Labor Department stating that he contacted Katrina evacuees with job offers and that "no one applied." At a previous meeting, workers demanded proof of this statement, which Quinn declined to provide.

Saket Soni, organizer with the New Orleans Justice Coalition, speaks to press about the injustices taking place in New Orleans and those that would follow if a national guest worker program is approved in Congress.

Another Decatur employee claims that workers are refusing to be silenced any further and that they are here to speak out against this form of modern-day slavery, before removing his handcuffs and tossing them aside.

The workers finish up the press conference in the shadow of the United States Federal Court building on Poydras Avenue, claiming that their intention is not just to get back the money that is owed to them individually, but to impact US immigration policy and make certain that other immigrants trying to provide for their families do not find themselves in the same situation of debt and indentured servitude in which they have become trapped.