Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans one year ago and much of the city hasn't been rebuilt. Workers imported from other states and countries to rebuild the city are underpaid and exploited by government-hired contractors.
A year after Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans, migrant workers recruited from other states and countries to revive the city are still being systematically underpaid and exploited.
The Southern Poverty Law Center charged today that a New Orleans hotel chain violated federal labor standards by firing the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit alleging the exploitation of Latin American guestworkers who were recruited to fill jobs vacated by Hurricane Katrina evacuees.
First-person accounts of the abuse that migrant workers in New Orleans endured as they cleaned up and rebuilt the city following Hurricane Katrina are detailed. The report describes how migrant workers in New Orleans were cheated out of pay, left hungry and homeless, and even denied medical treatment and benefits after being injured on the job.