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GUEST: Sameer Dossani, Director of 50 Years Is Enough Network, Organizer with New Orleans Worker Center for Racial Justice

As the 3-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches in August, guest workers from the Gulf Coast continue a weeks-long hunger strike. For the past three weeks, members of the Indian Workers Congress have demonstrated in front of the White House and Indian Embassy to denounce labor conditions they describe as modern-day slavery. In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, corporations who were awarded contracts to rebuild the Gulf Coast, sought guest worker from around the globe. Indian workers on hunger strike recall being recruited to work for Signal International on the promises of permanent residency, green cards, and family relocation. In exchange, the recruiter asked for a one-time cash payment of $20,000. When more than 500 Indian welders and pipe fitters accepted, they found themselves on H-2B guest worker visas. On the job conditions included the constant threat of deportation and poor food and lodging services for which the workers had to pay. Faced with broken promises and poor labor conditions, Indian workers have organized in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi to demand a U.S. State Department investigation into the abuses.

For more information visit www.neworleansworkerjustice.org.