Legal immigrants sue for being "Exploited Foreign Workers"

[RodISHI]

I found this article on immigrants sueing a hotel. It was written in 2006. I found it interesting.

Lawsuit Claims New Orleans Hotel Exploited Foreign Workers
A lawsuit was filed in New Orleans federal court against Decatur Hotels and Chief Executive F. Patrick Quinn III, claiming that the hotel company found a legal way to bring in workers from Latin America, and later exploited the workers in violation of U.S. Labor Law.

The issue at hand is whether companies are hiring foreign workers, mainly Latino migrants, because they are cheaper or because there is a lack of U.S. residents available to take blue-collar jobs. Many illegal immigrants, mainly from Latin America, have been flocking to New Orleans to do cleanup work.

The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, involves an unusual move by Decatur to recruit foreign workers under a government program, known as the H-2B guest-worker program. To qualify for the program, employers must prove to the government that they cannot find U.S. residents to fill the jobs in question. The program is designed to hire foreign workers to do temporary work in nonagricultural areas, often on a seasonal basis.

Several other companies in the region have also hired foreign workers under the guest-worker scheme after winning approval from the Labor Department, according to worker-rights organizations.

About 300 foreign workers are believed to have been hired early this year by Decatur to do housekeeping, maintenance and other work at its properties, according to officials at the National Immigration Law Center, a Washington-based advocacy group involved in the case.

In the lawsuit, 82 workers from Bolivia, Peru and the Dominican Republic allege that Decatur and Mr. Quinn violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by failing to reimburse them for fees paid to labor recruiters working as agents of the hotel chain abroad, as well as travel expenses and visa fees adding up to as much as $5,000. The lawsuit says Decatur should have made those payments in their first week of work to comply with labor law. The lawsuit further states that the company exploited the workers' indebtedness and lack of familiarity with U.S. laws to violate their legal rights.

The lawsuit also alleges that the workers' high level of personal debt stemming from their entry to the U.S. has left them in "severe debt," since they can neither make enough money to pay off their debt by working for the hotel chain nor, under the provisions of their visas, can they work for any other employer to earn additional money. The suit also states that "in recent weeks their predicament has been complicated ... by failure to offer them 40 hours of work each week."

The lawsuit against Decatur and Mr. Quinn says that the employer asserted that it couldn't find laborers "despite the fact that local U.S. workers, mostly African Americans, had previously worked in this industry in New Orleans and were available to do so."... [URL="http://www.lawcash.com/attorney/4901/decatur-hotels-f-patrick-quin-iii-lawsuit.asp"]continued story at lawcash.com

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[WillowTree]

 

[WillowTree]

They will win too.

 

[LaLinda75]

What else is new? When you come from countries that give you NOTHING and into a country where you can sue for someone looking at you cross eyed, what can one expect? And whose fault is it anyway?

 

[RetiredGySgt]

What else is new? When you come from countries that give you NOTHING and into a country where you can sue for someone looking at you cross eyed, what can one expect? And whose fault is it anyway?

Both National Parties are to blame. BUT the ones in power now are the dems and they plan amnesty for all.

 

[LaLinda75]

Then the dems will be at fault for the demise of this great nation. Who else can they blame? They now have the 60 votes to help them destroy what was once a great nation.

 

[SW2SILVER]

I hope they (the illegals) win. Neither side is exactly on the high moral ground, anyway. The illegals are biting the hand that feeds them. And the folks that hire illegals are dishonest, greedy jerks that need a comeuppance. So here we are, TA-DA! Maybe this will put an end to the issue, when employers have to pay illegals as much as a American, then they wont hire them anymore. Then illegals pack it up and go adios, Americanos. That would be a beautiful day.

 

[Nik]

What else is new? When you come from countries that give you NOTHING and into a country where you can sue for someone looking at you cross eyed, what can one expect? And whose fault is it anyway?

What exactly is your problem with suing people who broke the law and exploited immigrants?

 

[KittenKoder]

Seems people missed a lot about this.

First, it's 2006, the outcome has to be somewhere already.

Secondly, they are legal citizens, not illegal ones.

Thirdly, any worker can sue for that if they have enough evidence.

 

[Nik]

I hope they (the illegals) win. Neither side is exactly on the high moral ground, anyway. The illegals are biting the hand that feeds them. And the folks that hire illegals are dishonest, greedy jerks that need a comeuppance. So here we are, TA-DA! Maybe this will put an end to the issue, when employers have to pay illegals as much as a American, then they wont hire them anymore. Then illegals pack it up and go adios, Americanos. That would be a beautiful day.

Actually they came here legally. And the "hand that feeds them" is apparently holding them in what looks like a modern day form of slavery. Not enough money to leave, not enough work to repay your debts and stay.

 

[morpheus]

What else is new? When you come from countries that give you NOTHING and into a country where you can sue for someone looking at you cross eyed, what can one expect? And whose fault is it anyway?

Why are you always yelling like that?

These people were brought in legally, and were tricked into a situation of modern-day slavery. Instead of blaming the immigrants for seeking a legal way to enter the United States, you should blame the employers for making a mockery of US laws, on top of exploiting these people. Stop misconstruing everything as anti-American. These people are suing their employers. They're not suing the United States.

This is a classic example of modern-day slavery and human trafficking. You can learn more about it here:
http://www.polarisproject.org/
http://www.humantrafficking.org/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/world/slavery/default.stm