Dear Allies and Supporters, Join the Jamaican guestworkers in Panama City on Wednesday to pressure the property managers who benefited from their sub-minimum wage work to make the workers whole: WHAT: Press conference; Guestworkers who exposed severe labor abuse and faced threats of deportation for speaking out will be joined by civil rights, labor and community leaders to demand that the property managers who benefited from the captive worker scheme make them whole by paying them all the money they are owed. Workers and allies will also call on Representative Southerland to meet with the workers and support their struggle. WHEN: Wednesday, 9/4 12PM WHERE: Gather at 11213 Front Beach Road Panama City Bch, FL 32407 (Burger King parking lot) Contact: Jacob Horwitz [email protected] for more information. ALSO Today the the New York Times wrote: nytimes/2013/09/02/opinion/subcontractor-servitude.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&_r=1& Background In early 2013, over 150 guestworkers, mostly women, were recruited in Jamaica to serve as housecleaners for luxury condos on Florida’s Emerald Gulf Coast. The workers paid $2,000 to $2,500 apiece in recruitment fees and costs to participate in the H-2B guestworker visa program with the hopes of providing for their children and families back in Jamaica. They were promised they would earn that money back within a few weeks of full-time work, and would be provided decent living conditions. Instead, a labor contractor called Mister Clean Laundry and Cleaning Services trapped them in a nightmare of economic desperation and threats of deportation. Mister Clean leased them out to luxury beach condos managed by Silver Shells Beach Resort and Spa in Destin, FL; The Resort Collection of Panama City; Five Star Beach Properties, LLC; and Oaseas Resorts LLC. · Workers took on as much as $2,500 in debt to come to the United States, and after nearly five months cleaning condos, still owe money to creditors back home. · Workers were packed up to 15 people to a two-bedroom company apartment, sleeping on the floor while paying up to $375 a month each in rent. · Workers faced restricted hours and mandatory deductions—including a $70 “uniform fee” for a t-shirt—that at times brought their paychecks to below $0. Workers were told they owed money on payday to cover inflated cost of rent in company housing. · While many workers faced insufficient hours, others were overworked to the point of collapse, facing repeated 14-hour shifts with no overtime pay. · Workers were repeatedly paid with bad checks, and would have to wait for replacement checks without money to buy food or send home to their children. The workers are on strike from their employer, and are demanding: 1. That their employers pay back the money the workers are owed, including the unlawful recruitment fees, overpriced housing deductions, and unpaid hours and overtime. 2. That Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) pledge not to retaliate against the workers, rejecting the employers’ attempt to use threats of deportation as a weapon to cover up abuse and silence whistleblowers. 3. That the politicians in whose backyard the abuse took place support a thorough investigation and immigration reform with strong worker protections.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Sep 2013 14:46:31 +0000
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