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Friday, October 28, 2005

Hard Labor After Katrina
Times apparently aren't good for workers in the post-Katrina aftermath. Most notably, of course, the White House waived Davis-Bacon Act prevailing wage requirements for contractors, until the political pressure became too much to bear. Almost immediately after the hurricane hit, the Bush administration also announced a slew of waivers of regulatory protections, including waiver of the already atrocious rules for the maximum number of hours trucking companies can force their drivers to work without rest. (That waiver has now expired.)

Earlier this month, National Public Radio reported that thousands "of Latino workers, both documented and undocumented, fled the U.S. Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Now there are reports of discrimination by law enforcement officials, harassing suspected illegal immigrants at a Red Cross shelter in Long Beach, Miss. Contractors are also suspected of bringing undocumented workers into disaster areas for rebuilding projects, and dumping them at shelters as a form of subsidized housing."

Just last week came word that some "contractors leading reconstruction projects in the hurricane-hit southern United States have badly exploited workers and taken away business from local firms."

Cash alone won't rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast; it will take the labor of American workers. Something's going terribly wrong if there are this many reports of failures to protect those workers.

Posted by Robert Shull, 04:19:28 PM