The crew from Philly IMC are in the middle of a fortnight of traveling through the South to see for themselves exactly what is going on in the Gulf Coast region post-Katrina. Philly IMC is traveling with the Poverty Initiative and seeing things that the rest of us haven't seen. Telling us what the MSM aren't telling. Trying to help where the Fed has forgotten or turned away.
An excerpt from Day 5:
At an update stop at a nearby café, we interviewed an activist-academic from Texas who is studying the needs, stories and conditions of Latino day laborers in the Gulf. The stories he told were frightening. He said that contractors are recruiting many day laborers from Texas cities like Austin and Houston. These workers are from Mexico, El Salvador, Ecuador, and other countries in Central and South America. Contractors lure them to the Gulf Coast with promises of high pay and housing, and for many men, who have families to support, lucrative employment is hard to find; the offer is irresistible. Yet when they arrive in the Gulf, many laborers find themselves in a highly precarious situation. Contractors reduce pay by deducting fees for housing, food, and transportation. Or, they may pay them late or not at all. Many men are provided nowhere to stay, so they sleep on the streets or anywhere they can. Workplace conditions for the workers are often very unsafe and they are not provided the protective gear they need for cleaning up toxic debris. Also, many contractors prohibit workers from seeing doctors if they become sick or injured, insisting that their workers only see doctors employed by the contractors themselves. These men have basically no bargaining power and are mostly at the mercy of their employers. Of course, you don't really hear anything about this in the mainstream media, which often portrays the cleanup effort with scenes of professional cleanup crews exiting homes wearing masks and those white protective suits.
The PhillyIMC is doing some great reporting.
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