The journey to justice for these Indian workers began almost from the moment they arrived in the United States. Signal National LLC, a major defense contractor, recruited about 500 workers from India to work in the shipyards of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Workers were told that if they paid a fee of $20,000, they would get good work, green cards, and the chance to bring their families to the United States. Many sold ancestral land and mortgaged farms to come. They also agreed to pay off some of the fee through their work in New Orleans.

When workers arrived, they faced a different reality. Instead of giving them green cards, Signal brought workers to the United States on H2B visas, part of a guestworker program that only grants workers legal status in the United States if they are employed by a company that recruited and hired them. They were also told that they could only stay in the country for 10 months. Unable to earn enough to pay off their $20,000 fee to the company, workers essentially worked in involuntary servitude and lived in labor camps in Texas and Mississippi.

Workers ultimately filed human trafficking charges against Signal. They also lost their jobs, rendering them ineligible to work in the United States. In the Spring, workers marched from New Orleans to Washington in the spirit of Gandhi’s Satyagraha movement to demand that the Department of Justice investigate Signal. Over several months, the Department has interviewed 8 workers and taken non conclusive action.

Workers, in the meantime, needed to be able to earn money for themselves and their families. They dispersed across the country. 23 arrived in Fargo and began working on an ethanol plant. When the work was completed, ICE raided the facility and put workers in jail. They face three felony counts.

The fight these workers are waging is also WIN’s fight. We join this struggle with them because:

• We are tired of living with broken laws that hurt workers and benefit employers.
• We are tired of living with broken governmental agencies, more interested in practicing politics than protecting workers.
• We have a vision of an economy that protects workers and meets their needs first, a vision threatened by employers who would engage in unscrupulous acts to make a larger profit.

Here’s what you can do!

• Fast on December 18 in solidarity with workers.
• Join religious leaders, labor leaders, and Congressman Keith Ellison for a press conference on December 18 at 2:30 at the federal building in downtown Minneapolis.
• Call Congressman John Conyers at 202-225-3951 and Senator Patrick Leahy at 202-224-7703. Congressman Conyers and Senator Patrick Leahy chair the judicial committees in the House and Senate. Thank them for supporting these workers, and ask them to intervene. Ask them to call on the Department of Justice to grant Indian workers trafficked into the US by Signal National LLC “continued status” and ask them to ensure that the Department of Justice prosecutes the traffickers.
• Pray for workers! You can also reach them by email at courageincaptivity@gmail.com

This local private equity group recently purchased a paper pulp mill in Oregon that employs 100 workers.  After they bought the mill, Wayzata Investment Partners fired workers and informed them that they could reapply for their old jobs if they were willing to take pay cuts of 12%-28%. But it gets worse…

The private equity group also eliminated pensions and health insurance for retirees and are working to implement a health care plan that would require workers to pay a $3000 deductible and up to $10,000 in out of pocket expenses.

Workers are willing to work for the same wages and benefits they had under previous ownership. We hope that Patrick Halloran of Wayzata Investment Partners will partner with workers and negotiate in good faith, but there are reasons to be concerned. Private equity firms often deeply cut wages and benefits as a means of “reducing costs” and then sell the companies for large profits.

If you want to carpool, join us at 312 Central Ave. SE in Minneapolis at 11.

At their best, unions are a concrete tool for developing democracy and power among workers. They have allowed many workers to move from poverty to the middle class. They protect many workers from unsafe and inhumane work environments. And they give workers a chance to share their expertise and wisdom in creating a better workplace.

Unfortunately, too many employers make it too difficult for workers to form a union. An employer can voluntarily begin negotiating with workers when they come forward to say they want a union. Few if any employers take that path, though. Instead, they call for an “election” supervised by the National Labor Relations Board.

Unfortunately, these “elections” are unlike anything we would tolerate in our democracy. Over 90% of employers hire outside consulting firms to advise them when workers decide to come together to make things better at work. These firms often encourage employers to use unethical and sometimes illegal tactics to keep workers from organizing. Workers who support organizing are sometimes fired, even though it’s illegal. Some workers have their work hours changed. Employers call captive audience meetings and require workers to listen to anti-union speakers. Some workers are called into private meetings with multiple managers who use fear and misinformation to persuade workers to vote against forming a union.

In the meantime, employers frequently ban anyone working for a union from speaking to workers about the advantages available to workers who come together to organize. Imagine a political campaign where one party could run commercials all day and all night for no cost while the opposing party was banned from even mailing out a postcard!

EFCA would allow workers to decide how they would make the decision to form a union. Workers who want to use the existing NLRB election process could still do so. Other workers could choose to use a “card check” process that prevents employers from using strongarm tactics and involves asking workers to sign cards indicating that they want to form a union. When a simple majority of workers fill out cards, employers would have to begin negotiation with workers over wages, benefits, and working conditions.

WIN will be developing materials for you to use in your congregation to help make the Employee Free Choice Act a reality. If you want to use these resources to make life easier for workers in our community, email matt@workersinterfaith.org or caitlin@workersinterfaith.org

We are increasingly witnessing this type of intimidation these workers confront in workplaces across the Twin Cities. Here is a chance to support these workers as they courageously stand for their rights.  On Friday, January 25 workers will be voting to keep their Union in order to move on to negotiating their expired contract. We will be joining workers and members of the community to show our support for over 250 workers at Dakota Premium by leafleting outside of the plant gate this Thursday. Come anytime between 3:15 – 5:45 to N. Hardman Ave., South St. Paul.

Workers in our community live with the brokenness of injustice every day. Employers set aside the covenant of a fair wage for a fair day’s work, affordable health care and safe and dignified working conditions in favor of exploitation and mistreatment. And so we as a culture are called not just to repent but to act to correct these injustices. Join us to lift up these sacred themes at one of the most sacred times of the year in the name of justice. Dakota Premium is at 425 Concord Street in South Saint Paul. See you then!

By the way, if you want to read more about justice and kosher food, read this great new website about a local Rabbi’s work!

Clerical, technical and health care workers are entering the second week of a strike aimed at winning just wages for workers that make the University of Minnesota run. The average worker in these fields at the U earns just $33,000 a year, and what’s more, workers salaries have not kept up with inflation, putting many in difficult financial circumstances.

Anne Markusen, a professor and the Director of the Project on Regional and Industrial Economics wrote in the Star Tribune, “Expert commentary in our times is rife with lament about the worsening distribution of income and wealth. The university’s gap-spreading raises would contribute to the growing inequity in society at large.” (Read the whole article here.) Markusen went on to say that the U’s refusal to pay a decent wage disproportionately effects women in the workforce. Standing up for U Workers is our opportunity to stand up for economic justice and shared prosperity for all.

Workers who lost their jobs continue to picket in front of the Department of Transportation Building on John Ireland Blvd. every day from 11-1. WIN will join workers every Tuesday until their jobs, wages, and benefits, are restored.

In addition to joining us on the picket line, please call Bruce Taher, the owner of the new management company, at 952-945-0505. Ask him to rehire these workers, restore their benefits, and restore a relationship with the union they belonged to!

The religious community played a key role in the Taco Bell boycott. Join us on March 22 at 12 p.m. for lunch to learn more about what the religious community can do in this campaign.  Representatives from Immokallee and the Twin Cities solidarity committee will be on hand.

WIN is only one of many organizations in the religious community supporting this campaign. The National Council of Churches, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and many other religious and human rights leaders have called on McDonald’s to partner with farmworkers with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) to improve sub-poverty wages and abuses in the fields of Florida. 

Here’s what you and your congregation can do to take action to support farmworkers:

-          Collect signatures on postcards to send to McDonald’s headquarters.

-          Host a presentation about conditions that farmworkers face in the fields today.

-          Join the Twin Cities Delegation in the March for Farmworker Justice in Chicago, IL with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) on April 13-14, 2007.

If you are interested in joining us for lunch or participating in any of these actions, contact matt@workersinterfaith.org or call 612-332-2055

Want to learn more? Click here to visit the CIW website and here for the Alliance for Fair Food, which WIN recently has endorsed, website