George Miller

Washington, March 14: The fate of nearly 100 Indian workers who walked off their jobs in Mississippi last week accusing their employers of slave labour practices is becoming apolitical hot potato in the US Congressional election season.

George Miller, chairman of the US House of Representatives Education and Labour Committee, has taken up their cause even as a class action lawsuit has been filed in a federal court accusing their employers, Signal International, of “psychological coercion” in addition to a string of violations of US laws.

Miller has asked US labour secretary Elaine Chao to confirm to him that the labour department had inspected Signal International last year and sought details of all guest worker applications and certifications in the past five years.

Miller is a Congressman from California where Mexican and other Hispanic workers constitute a vote bank.

Welfare of immigrant workers — even illegal aliens — is a vote-getter in electoral districts in the state with Latinos who are US citizens.

A two-member fact-finding mission from the Indian embassy in Washington and the Indian consulate general in Houston, which visited Mississippi, will submit a report to ambassador Ronen Sen. India’s consul general in Houston, S.M. Gavai, said Sen would study the report and forward it to New Delhi for further action.

Alerted by allegations of malpractice in recruiting Indian workers, the Indian minister for overseas Indian affairs, Vayalar Ravi, has swiftly ordered the suspension of licences of two recruiting firms which sent the workers to Mississippi. The companies are Dewan Consultants and S. Mansur and Company, both based in Mumbai.

Further action and formal charges may follow once Sen sends the fact-finding team’s report to New Delhi.

At the same time, the rare direct action by the Indian workers has become a rallying cause for non-government organisations in support of guest worker rights.

“These workers mortgaged their futures for the American dream and instead incurred substantial debt, were forced to live in squalid living conditions and were threatened with (deportation) when they tried to stand up for their rights,” Jennifer Rosenbaum, a lawyer for the Southern Poverty Law Center, was quoted as saying in the local media this week.

The employers of the striking workers continue to deny the allegations against them. “Signal respects the right of its former employees to demonstrate but maintains that the allegations being made against Signal, its employment practices and housing complex conditions are simply untrue,” the company reiterated.

At the same time, there are fears that the workers may be overwhelmed by the flood of support they are getting and that some of the advice they are receiving may not be entirely in their best interests.

For example, the workers lost some goodwill this week when they set an arbitrary deadline for the Indian ambassador to meet them even as the fact-finding team was in Mississippi and was yet to submit its report to Sen.

The workers have also been irrational in insisting that the fact-finding team should not meet the employers to get a complete picture of the case.