RESOLUTION ON "GUEST WORKER" STEAMFITTERS & WELDERS

Labor and Immigration - Where Union Members Stand
Hello Sisters, Brothers & All,
The resolution below was considered by about 90 pipe
trades workers and passed unanimously on 5/14/08 at a
regular union meeting of UA Plumbers and Fitters Local
393. On 5/15 our delegates carried it to a convention
of the California State Pipe Trades Council,
representing over 30,000 pipe trades workers throughout
the state.  On 5/16 the Resolutions Committee discussed
it in some detail and recommended passage without any
changes.  On 5/17 the Convention delegates read and
accepted the resolution.  After one delegate commented
on it briefly, they passed it unanimously.
In Solidarity,
Fred Hirsch, Executive Board Member, UA Local 393

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RESOLUTION ON "GUEST WORKER" STEAMFITTERS & WELDERS
WORKING IN SLAVE-LIKE CONDITIONS IN MISSSISSIPPI
Whereas, at a recent conference in Dearborn, Michigan
members of Local 393 met with welders and pipefitters
from India who were recruited as so-called "guest
workers" to work for Signal International LLD (an oil
rig repair and construction company) in Pascagoula,
Mississippi, an area still affected by Hurricane
Katrina, and

Whereas these fitters and welders said they had given
up life savings, sold family homes and jewelry in order
to pay up to $20,000 in immigration and travel fees in
advance after  Signal's recruiters tested them for
their skills and gave them false promises of permanent
resident "green card" visas to work in the United
States starting at $24 an hour, and


Whereas the Indian welders and fitters said they did
not come to take anyone's jobs, they were told by
Signal's recruiters that, because of Hurricanes Katrina
and Rita, there were not enough local, skilled people
to fill these jobs, and

Whereas, on arrival the promised green cards turned out
to be 10-month H2B "guest worker" visas,  controlled by
the company, allowing not even enough time to pay off
their enormous debt, and


Whereas, the workers had to pay $1050 a month to live
in Signal's grossly overcrowded, guarded "mancamp"
trailers with inadequate toilets and bad food that
frequently made them ill, and

Whereas, when, in March 2007, they began to assert
their labor rights, armed company guards were sent in,
threatening deportation and forcefully detaining the
leaders for six hours, until they were freed when co-
workers called local police, and


Whereas the Indian fitters and welders organize
themselves with help from the New Orleans Workers'
Center, the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, and
the Southern Poverty Law Center and have filed a class
action lawsuit on behalf of some 500 Indian H-2B "guest
workers" who Signal similarly recruited since 2003, and


Whereas these fitters and welders organized a march to
Washington to demand a "just immigration system that
does not seek to pit exploitable foreign workers
against American workers" in a race to the bottom, and

Whereas the Indian fitters and welders demanded that
Signal International hire local American workers under
a union contract, with fair wages, health benefits,
immigrant rights, and a chance to move forward and make
life better for all of Mississippi, and

Whereas they want a Congressional investigation and
Justice Department action relating to Signal
International's involvement in "forced labor and human
trafficking" in violation of the Victims of Trafficking
and Violence Protection Act, the Racketeer Influenced
and Corrupt Organizations Act, the Civil Rights Act of
1866, the Civil Rights Act of 1871 and the Fair Labor
Standards Act, and


Whereas we as members of United Association should
stand in solidarity with our Indian counterparts,
recognizing that the large American construction
company Signal, sought to replace local workers who
are either underemployed or were completely displaced
by Katrina, and UA steamfitters and welders with "guest
workers" they believed would be cheap, exploitable, and
easy to manage and intimidate, and


Whereas the situation of Indian "guest workers" on the
post Katrina Gulf Coast doing work in the UA
jurisdiction validates the 3/1/06 AFL-CIO statement
that: "Overhaul of our nation's immigration laws is
long overdue. The current system is a blueprint for
exploitation of workers, both foreign-born and
native...America deserves an immigration system that
protects all workers within our borders - both native-
born and foreign - and at same time guarantees the
safety of our nation without compromising our
fundamental civil rights and civil liberties..."

Therefore Be It Resolved that our Local Union
recognizes that; we members of the United Association
have a vested interest in supporting the struggle of
the Indian welders and fitters in Mississippi; that
their fight to win their fundamental human rights as
workers is part of the larger fight against the
pitfalls of globalization and of pro-corporate "guest
worker" programs designed to pit U.S. workers against
our foreign counterparts in an economic race to the
bottom; that we offer our solidarity and support their
demand for a Congressional investigation and for action
by the Department of Justice  against those guilty of
violating their rights as workers under the Fair Labor
Standards Act,  the Victims of Trafficking and Violence
Protection Act, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations Act, and whatever civil rights laws may
be applicable, and

Be It Further Resolved that we ask the UA to cooperate
with the pipe trades workers from India in their
efforts, to show our support of dignity and respect for
all those who work in our industry, with the tools of
our trade in observance of the call of our U.A.

Constitution to use our "influence on those who do not
as yet belong to the Association...to join with us in
our efforts to secure through the power of
organization...the steady demand and a fair compensation
for our toil," and


Be It Finally Resolved that we endorse and promote the
AFL-CIO call for reversing "the trend of allowing
employers...to broaden the size and scope of
guestworker programs," and to promote, "an immigration
system that protects all workers within our borders -
both native-born and foreign - and at same time
guarantees the safety of our nation without
compromising our fundamental civil rights and civil
liberties."

and San Benito Counties, California.
http://www.ualocal393.org/about.php?Welcome-1/