Illegal Workers Face Hardship in Big Easy

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From: " " <jbennett@...>

Subject: NEWSWATCH: Immigrant Workers on Gulf Coast Lack Job Safeguards - 2

articles

Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 11:10:10 -0400

NYCOSH Newswatch

*

Illegal Immigrants Lack Job Safeguards: Health Concerns, Pay

Issues Raised in Report on N.O.'s Labor Scene - Times Picayune, June 7,

2006

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Illegal Workers Face Hardship in Big Easy - Associated Press,

June 6, 2006

========================================================

Illegal Immigrants Lack Job Safeguards: Health Concerns, Pay Issues

Raised in Report on N.O.'s Labor Scene

By Pope

Times Picayune

June 7, 2006

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1149661784

94780.xml

Illegal immigrants make up about one-fourth of the laborers rebuilding

the New Orleans area, according to a study that also suggests they are

less likely than their documented counterparts to get protective gear

and be informed about health hazards such as asbestos and mold.

These workers are paid about 40 percent less than legal laborers, and

they are much less likely to get help for medical problems, according to

the report released today by Tulane University and the University of

California, Berkeley.

In more than 200 interviews conducted in March, researchers found that

nearly half of the hurricane-repair workers are Latinos and that 54

percent of those laborers are illegal, making up nearly one-fourth of

the workers helping to rebuild the area.

Although these people are not documented, the report's data show they

aren't new arrivals to the United States even if they were not in New

Orleans before Hurricane Katrina.

While the study says two-thirds of the Latino construction workers have

moved to the New Orleans area since the hurricane, interviewers found

that 87 percent of them already had lived in the United States, refuting

the notion that the storm had triggered a surge of illegal

border-crossing.

The study's data were based on interviews with 212 randomly selected

people of all origins working around New Orleans, said Phuong Pham of

Tulane, one of its authors, in an interview.

To back up their findings, interviewers talked to 148 selected Latino

workers, as well as 25 people representing government agencies and

organizations that work with immigrants in such fields as legal

advocacy, social services and health care.

Pollsters found that illegal workers were paid, on average, $10 an hour,

compared with $16.50 for documented workers. Moreover, interviewers

found, the illegal workers had a more difficult time collecting what

they were due.

Lack of health care

There also was a disparity in the availability of protective supplies.

While 84 percent of the documented workers said they had such gear, 72

percent of the illegal laborers said they were given such equipment.

Such a situation is problematic, the data show, because undocumented

workers were much less aware than their legal counterparts of such

hazards as mold, asbestos and unsafe buildings.

" Reconstruction after natural disasters exposes workers to some of the

worst on-the-job hazards in situations where services, especially access

to health care, are scarce, " said Laurel Fletcher, a clinical professor

of law at Berkeley, in a statement.

Consequently, she said, " public officials at all levels . . . need to

strengthen monitoring and enforcement of worker health and safety

protections. "

Only 9 percent of the illegal workers had health insurance, compared

with 55 percent of the documented workers, researchers found, and only

38 percent of the undocumented laborers received medications when they

needed them, compared with 83 percent of the legal workers.

Although only slightly more than one-fourth of all the workers sought

medical help, the proportion of legal workers treated was more than

three times as high as the number of undocumented laborers, the data

show.

The study, " Rebuilding After Katrina: A Population-Based Study of Labor

and Human Rights in New Orleans, " is being prepared for publication in a

scholarly journal.

But the group decided to release the results " right now because this is

a hot topic, " said Pham, an adjunct assistant professor of international

development at Tulane's Payson Center for International Development and

Technology Transfer.

" The report tells us that the Latino populations are here, and we need

to do something, " she said.

National issue hits home

The report arrives as the country is embroiled in a debate over

establishing a policy for dealing with illegal immigrants. The Senate

last month passed, with President Bush's blessing, a bill that would

strengthen security along the U.S.-Mexico border, establish a program to

let immigrants come in temporarily to work and create a procedure to let

illegal immigrants apply for citizenship after paying fines and back

taxes.

It faces stiff opposition in the House.

" We really can't have it both ways, " Pham said. " We either enforce

immigration laws, which means we can't permit them to work (in the

United States), or we develop a process where we can issue them working

permits in an expedited way that allows them to work and be covered by

workers' comp and all the benefits that come with working legally. "

Such workers should be encouraged to come to the New Orleans area, she

said.

" If we're entering into a vicious cycle of hurricane seasons, I think we

need all the workers we can get, " Pham said.

Before last year's hurricane, Louisiana had one of the smallest Hispanic

populations in the country -- 2.5 percent of residents, compared with

12.5 percent nationally. Census data indicate nearly 100,000 Hispanics

moved to the Gulf Coast region after Katrina.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Pope can be

reached at jpope@... or (504) 826-3317.

========================================================

Illegal Workers Face Hardship in Big Easy

By Rukmini Callimachi

Associated Press

June 6, 2006

http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/06/06/ap2797998.html

Illegal immigrants helping to rebuild this shattered city are working in

hazardous conditions without protective gear and earning far less than

their legal counterparts, a study says.

Nearly one-third of the illegal immigrants interviewed by researchers

reported working with harmful substances and in dangerous conditions,

while 19 percent said they were not given any protective equipment,

according to the study by professors at Tulane University and the

University of California at Berkeley.

Illegal immigrants also were paid significantly less - if at all -

earning on average $10 per hour, compared with $16.50 for documented

workers, the study said.

" What is fundamentally unfair is these are workers who have responded to

a national priority to rebuild this city and yet whose rights are being

violated, " said Laurel Fletcher, director of Berkeley's International

Human Rights Law Clinic and one of the study's co-authors.

Under federal labor law, illegal immigrants are afforded the same health

and safety protections as documented workers. And regardless of their

legal status, laborers can sue most employers under the Fair Labor

Standards Act for violation of the minimum wage law and overtime

regulations, according to the researchers.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration said it has

conducted more than 7,000 on-site inspections in the New Orleans area.

The U.S. Department of Labor said it was concerned about wage and safety

violations and had hurried to establish a Gulf Coast office.

" I'm not surprised that there are wage violations in the whole Gulf

Coast rebuilding area - all of the conditions are there for that to

occur, " said Lipnic, assistant secretary of labor for

employment standards. " But we've tried to be very proactive in our

enforcement effort. "

Before last year's hurricane, Louisiana had one of the smallest Hispanic

populations in the country - 2.5 percent of residents compared with 12.5

percent nationally.

Census data indicates nearly 100,000 Hispanics moved to the Gulf Coast

region following Hurricane Katrina, lured by promises of high wages and

plentiful work. It is unclear precisely how many have come to New

Orleans, though the study estimates one-quarter of the construction

workers in New Orleans are illegal immigrants.

They are now the backbone of the reconstruction, converging at dawn on

the city, waiting to be picked up for 14-hour shifts hauling debris,

ripping out drywall and nailing walls. Because so many are here

illegally, the study says, they are especially vulnerable to

exploitation.

To make his point, Alberto Mendoza holds up his lined, calloused hands,

proof of the hard and unprotected work he has been performing. " No

gloves, no goggles - no nothing, " said the 40-year-old illegal immigrant

from Mexico City.

In his pocket, he keeps a jagged piece of paper inscribed with the word

" Pam " and a cell phone number, his only lifeline to the woman who hired

him.

" She took me to the house and said: 'Do this. Do that.' Then she left us

there. We worked all day. She never came back to pay us, " said Mendoza,

sitting in a traffic median Monday, waiting for another job.

Twenty-eight percent of illegal immigrants interviewed said they had

problems getting their pay, compared with 13 percent of those here

legally. More than a third said they were paid less than they were

promised, and few said they were paid for more than 40 hours in one

week.

While 83 percent of documented workers interviewed by the researchers

said they received medical attention when needed, only 38 percent of

illegal immigrants did.

Around one-third of illegal immigrants said they understood the hazards

of removing asbestos or mold, compared with more than 65 percent of

documented laborers.

Some of those waiting for work said they are afraid of complaining.

" It's too dangerous for my body, " said 29-year-old Saul Linan, an

illegal immigrant from Guanajuato, Mexico. " But I don't say anything. If

I do, the boss says, `Hey, if you don't work hard, I'll take you to

immigration.' "

Copyright 2006 Associated Press.

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