CNN/AP: Immigrant (Hispanic) workers stiffed for Katrina work (very sad)

Please click and read the article for the personal stories of these workers.


Immigrant workers stiffed for Katrina work

GULFPORT, Mississippi (AP) -- A pattern is emerging as the cleanup of Mississippi's Gulf Coast morphs into its multibillion-dollar reconstruction: Come payday, untold numbers of Hispanic immigrant laborers are being stiffed.

Sometimes, the boss simply vanishes. Other workers wait on promises that soon, someone in a complex hierarchy of contractors will provide the funds to pay them.

Nonpayment of wages is a violation of federal labor law, but these workers -- thousands of them, channeled into teams that corral debris, swaddle punctured roofs in blue tarps and gut rain-ravaged homes -- are especially vulnerable because many are here illegally....

***

An Army Corps spokesman said he wasn't aware of any problems with payments. A KBR spokeswoman wouldn't provide details about the base cleanup, referring inquiries to the Navy, which referred questions about subcontractors back to KBR....

***

Nonpayment is not specified as a crime under Mississippi law and the state Department of Employment Security defers wage claims to the federal Department of Labor. Workers who claim back wages have two formal options: Filing a civil suit in state court or a federal complaint. Mississippi prosecutors haven't received any complaints, according to special assistant attorney general Peter Cleveland....

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/05/katrina.immigrant.work.ap/index.html

may include toxic chemicals, you really have to think.

The fact is Bush's little pyramid scheme, that is government gives to a few major contractors who then subcontract out to more subcontractors and on down the line pretty much provides maximum profit for the major contractors and also frees both government and the major contractors of responsibility, doesn't it?

Often, the same people who hire them turn them in before pay day.

One of the many benefits of keeping them illegal. They can't complain.

because they can't fight or even tell.

Yet another face of compassionate conservatism.

Another excerpt:

The job was supposed to pay $7 an hour. But six weeks later, Ojeda still hasn't been paid the $600-plus he said he is owed for eight days of dawn-to-dusk labor.

Karen Tovar, the subcontractor on the job, acknowledged she hasn't been able to pay dozens of workers a total of about $130,000. She insisted she was not at fault, blaming the way payments can be stalled along a long chain of subcontractors often led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

At one point, Tovar had 83 workers cleaning the Navy base under a broader, $12 million contract held by KBR, a firm owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, Halliburton.

they're even begrudging the workers that piddly amount of pay?

they make me sick.

Destroying the black community, giving KBR the contracts not locals, hiring undocumented workers to work in toxic conditions and then stiffing them.

You apparetly have no appreciation for the fact that it's not a question of money (greed), it's a question of power over these people, and if you can humiliate them by making them work for nothing, knowing that they don't really have much they can do about it due to their inherent vulnerabilities, why, it's just a barrel of laughs and gallons of self-esteem for the sociopathic racists among us.

I used to work on Federal contracts and one of the standard stipulations was that we could not bill the government before we expended the dollars for labor. The company had DOD contracting certification. I know this rule was unbendable for cost plus contracts. We generally anticipated a 90 day cash flow allowance from expense to payment received. I've also used this rule myself as an independent contractor to force payment when the small business owner with the Federal contract tried to say he wouldn't pay me until the government paid him.

Perhaps there are special procurement rules for this sort of contracting. K B & R may be using fixed price task orders, for example. I don't know all the federal regs.

On edit: Fixed price would be a very dicey proposition for work on this scale. It's an encouragement to engage in practices like delaying payment.

http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/news/katrina3.html

21 Oct. 2005

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 (HalliburtonWatch.org) -- As many as 100 undocumented immigrants have been hired by a Halliburton subcontractor to clean-up areas damaged by Hurricane Katrina, a United States senator revealed.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) accused Alabama-based BE&K of illegally hiring the workers after Halliburton awarded a subcontract to the firm to repair naval bases damaged by the hurricane.

The Associated Press reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have detained the workers for violating immigration laws.

"It is a downright shame that any contractor would use this tragedy as an opportunity to line his pockets by breaking the law and hiring a low-skilled, low-wage and undocumented work force," Landrieu said in a statement. She urged the Department of Homeland Security to investigate what she called a "chronic" use of undocumented workers by government contractors involved in Katrina cleanup.

"The federal government must ensure that every company, no matter how big, follows the law and provides Gulf Coast residents with the jobs they deserve," Landrieu said.

This is not the first time Halliburton and its subcontractors have been criticized for the way foreign workers are treated. Halliburton was recently criticized for exploiting foreign workers in Iraq by forcing them to live in inhumane conditions and paying below minimum wage compensation.

...more...

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12630977.htm

excerpt:

Some contracts, including five with emergency housing and construction companies, were awarded hurriedly without undergoing normal competitive bidding processes. Meanwhile, the Bush administration has waived prevailing wage requirements that ensure government-contracted workers in disaster areas are fairly compensated.

Among the most controversial Katrina awards is one that the Homeland Security team cannot investigate: a $16.6 million contract with Kellogg, Brown & Root Services Inc. of Arlington, Va., for emergency repairs at Gulf Coast naval and Marine facilities. The money is part of a $500 million Navy contract that KBR won by competitive bid last July.

Because the Pentagon awarded the KBR contract, Homeland Security has no authority to audit it. But KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton Co., has been at the center of scrutiny for receiving a five-year, no-bid contract to restore Iraqi oil fields shortly before the war began in 2003. Vice President Dick Cheney headed Halliburton from 1995 to 2000, and Democrats have questioned whether the company has gotten favorable treatment because of his connection.

"Congress is rightly spending billions of dollars to help the people and businesses of the Gulf Coast who have been devastated by Hurricane Katrina," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said. Over the weekend she called for an independent commission to oversee relief contracts "to ensure taxpayers' money goes to those in need, not to fraudulent contractors."

<snip>

Generally, Katrina contractors "will be given the benefit of the doubt," Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., said.

...more...

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/2005/10/katrina-cleanup-contracts-continue-for-kbr/index.php

Posted 14-Oct-2005 06:14
Related stories: Bases & Infrastructure
Also on this day: 14-Oct-2005 »

The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southern Division in North Charleston, SC continues to issue contracts related to post-Katrina cleanup at US military facilities. Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root Services in Arlington, VA recently received a pair of modifications to contracts it had already been granted.

These task orders were issued under contract # N62470-04-D-4017, a $500 million contract specifying unusual capability requirements; these two task orders alone now total $104.7 million. Modifications included:
A $33.6 million modification (P0009) to Task Order 0017 for under a cost-reimbursement, for Hurricane Katrina stabilization and recovery at Naval Air Station (NAS) Pascagoula, NAS Gulfport, Stennis Space Center and other Navy installations in the Southeast Region. Award of this modification brings the total task order amount to $61.3 million, and work is expected to be complete by September 2007.
A $10 million Modification (P0011) to Task Order 0016 for Hurricane Katrina stabilization and recovery at Naval Support Activity (NSA) New Orleans, Joint Reserve Base (JRB) New Orleans, and other Navy installations in the South Region. Award of this modification brings the total task order amount to $43.4 million. Work will be performed in New Orleans, LA and other Navy installations in the South Region, and is expected to be complete by September 2007.

Work to be performed in these indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity emergency construction capabilities contracts involves re-construction, re-roofing of most buildings, barracks, debris removal from the entire base, water mitigation, mold mitigation, interior and exterior repairs to most buildings, waste treatment plants, and all incidental related work.

than just this case with immigrants, illegal or not. I've experienced it.

Perhaps the best answer is to demand payment at the end of every day. In order to avoid 'bad' checks from corrupt, sleazy bosses (aren't all bosses sleazy to a degree?), cash is best.

the DUers who take the weekend off need to see this on Monday.

:argh: Boy this pisses me off!! The president of Mexico, Vincente Fox, needs to be notified about this, and needs to confront bush about it, in Argentina if need be.

A huge multi-billion dollar company like Halliburton/KBR, needs to be beaten to the ground for this: stiffing the poorest to keep the $$ to themselves. If this doesn't cause riots, it should.

:kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick:

The consequences of voting for Bush and his conservatives. You church goers, who voted for Bush because he claims to be a "born-again" Christian, who has personal conversations with God...see the results of your votes? Can you imagine the Jesus you claim to be the Savior of mankind, condoning using illegals to do backbreaking, dangerous work, risking their health by exposure to all kinds of toxic substances, while the cronies of your "Godly President" stuff their pockets, and deny these people the already shamefully low pay they promised?

The displaced residents of Louisiana, the ones who are scattered out all over the country, longing to return to the place they were born, homes and jobs lost, not knowing where all their family members are, would love to come back and do the work themselves. Businesses which will close forever, but could be saved by doing the reconstruction work themselves, are shunted aside in order to further enrich the friends of your moral president. No matter that they have more money already than they could spend in a thousand lifetimes. There is more blood to be squeezed from the downtrodden, before they lose the will to live.

You greedy conservatives, who demand tax cuts like those dying of thirst demand a sip of water, you have no qualms at having billions of tax dollars funneled back into the same corrupt pockets, but when it comes to helping, by a few pitiful pennies, the ones who lost everything due to Katrina, you will squeal like hogs about to be slaughtered. You are outraged at the thought of millionaires and billionaires having their tax cuts rolled back, even though it will not cause them ANY pain, or sacrifice, but look the other way when Republicans slash budgets for the children, the poor, and the elderly.

This, in all it's glory, is the conservative agenda. There you have it, America. Screw the poor, the powerless, the ones who do the actual work to keep this nation going. Take what they have, steal their labor, pile it at the feet of the Bush cronies, and while you do it, wrap yourselves in the flag, and wave the Bible, and tell me again how us libruls are ruining the country. God bless the almighty values conservatives. :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

It breaks my heart that conservatives are so cruel, and that their cruelty has become the basis for taking over a political party in this country. Cruelty to the weak, and the ones least likely to be able to defend themselves is the mark of people who are sadistic.

How anybody, especially a person who claims to be morally superior to the rest of us, can tolerate this sadism and cruelty is something I find impossible to fathom. That's why the marriage of fundamentalist Christians and the Republican party is so strange. Try as I might, I have been unable to find any Biblical passages in the New Testament where Jesus encourages his followers to cheat workers, take from the poor and give to the rich, and to start wars.

Current statistics, including the increasing gap between rich and poor, the fact that fewer and fewer have any kind of health insurance, and the outsourcing of jobs, should be obvious examples that conservative policies do not work, or at least do not work for the benefit of American citizens.

Of all of the many flaws in conservative politics, the one I find most repulsive is the one which passes laws which encourage and condone cruelty and inhumane treatment of the rest of us. I wish Republicans would just come out and be honest, for once in their lives...and say the laws we pass are to enrich our cronies and screw the rest of you, but we firmly believe that you're stupid enough to vote for us, so go ahead and keep doing it. We don't care about you, we just want your votes so we can keep screwing you.

The sad thing is, a careful look at the results of their policies and laws would clearly point out the same thing, but people keep voting for them.

If you don't have to pay prevailing wages, then who better to exploit than immigrant workers who have no recourse when you stiff them? All the better for profit margins...

If you have to pay per Davis-Bacon, then you will hire documented workers and pay them a fair (but still cheap) rate, given the prevailing wages in that part of the country are low.

Senator Landrieu of Louisiana and Senator Dorgan of North Dakota, here's the story from Landrieu's website:

White House Heeds Landrieu's Call; Reinstates Fair Wages For Louisiana Workers:

http://landrieu.senate.gov/hurricane/workers.cfm

Of course, I'm not sure that this is also applicable to Mississippi, considering that their Governor is that fat pig Haley Barbour and that they've also got such crap Sentator's as Trent Lott and Thad Cochran. Maybe somebody could find out if the reversal of the Davis-Bacon Act suspension also covers Mississippi.

were able to pressure Bush into dropping this position eventually, but there still was a time that DB was suspended, as I understand it, and during that time these workers were hired.

Would be happy to be proven wrong.

Also, your link didn't work for me.

(edited to add this link re: timing of the suspension):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis-Bacon_Act

I thought it was "hurricane" and it was "hurricanes"

http://landrieu.senate.gov/hurricanes/workers.cfm

That hopefully SHOULD work now :)

Yes, Junior did suspend Davis-Bacon, and I think he suspended it DURING the six days that NOLA was drowning, when he was fundraising and eating cake and strumming a guitar...he found TIME to try and stiff workers into being paid below minimum wage.

The Louisiana reversal though had zero to do with so-called moderate Republic's, and everything to do with Landrieu and Dorgan.

And look at the wage rate in Orleans Parish, an electrician gets $22.09 an hour and the Bush bastard really THOUGHT that Senator Landrieu was going to LET him stiff her constituents! What a moran Junior is.

three weeks ago and can't find it. The gist was, the owner of the biggest hotel chain in NO **BUSSED** in undocumented workers to work clean up on his properties.

And the funny thing is, if you google "New Orleans hotel illegal" what you get are articles that talk about "illegals" swarming to the Gulf Coast.

That is probably happening now. But, this guy went out of his way **not** to offer these jobs to local people.

Good bye, NO. I'm glad I got to see you before they turned you into Stepford. :cry:

since we already know he loves torture!

exploitation is the name of the game with those bastards.

Next up: YOU or ME! :puke:

statute for unpaid wages and someone (illegal or not) and files an action. Their immigration status would be irrelevant to a breach of contract or quantum meruit claim.

they are so easily victimized. "Price gougers" go to jail, so "people gougers ought to get 5 years.