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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> Ricardo Valadez <a
href="mailto:ricardo@jwj.org">ricardo@jwj.org</a> <br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p align=center style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:center;background:white'><b>NEW
ORLEANS WORKERS' CENTER FOR RACIAL JUSTICE<br>
<a href="http://www.neworleansworkerjustice.org/" target="_blank"
title="http://www.neworleansworkerjustice.org/"><span style='color:windowtext'>www.neworleansworkerjustice.org</span></a><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p align=center style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:center;background:white'><b>Indian
trafficking survivors suspend hunger strike on Day 29 after huge political
gains<br>
Workers celebrate support, vow to fight on as allies hold solidarity rallies in
10 US cities</b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in;background:white;-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial;
-moz-background-origin: -moz-initial;-moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;
background-position-x:0%;background-position-y:50%'>WASHINGTON, DC – On <b>Wednesday,
June 11, 2008, </b>about 150<b> </b>Indian labor trafficking survivors and
supporters rallied at the Department of Justice headquarters, where the workers
suspended their hunger strike on Day 29 after an unprecedented outpouring of
support from US Congressmen and leaders from labor, civil rights, and religious
communities. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in;background:white;-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial;
-moz-background-origin: -moz-initial;-moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;
background-position-x:0%;background-position-y:50%'>"Congress passed the
Trafficking Victims Protection Act because we recognized that modern day
slavery exists and that workers trafficked into the United States should be
able to place their faith in the United States justice system," <b>Rep.
Dennis Kucinich said at the rally</b>, one week after he and 17 Congressional
colleagues sent a letter to the Department of Justice urging legal protections
for the workers while it investigates their case. "Today, we must make
sure we don't betray their faith in us." <o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in;background:white;-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial;
-moz-background-origin: -moz-initial;-moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;
background-position-x:0%;background-position-y:50%'>"After 29 days, we are
suspending a hunger strike that has brought us more power than any group of H2B
guest workers in the United States has ever had," said Sabulal Vijayan, an
organizer with the Indian Workers' Congress. "We have the confidence to
suspend our hunger strike today because we have faith in these allies to fight
alongside us until the traffickers are brought to justice."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in;background:white;-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial;
-moz-background-origin: -moz-initial;-moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;
background-position-x:0%;background-position-y:50%'>The vast support for the
workers' fight for justice against the labor trafficking chain of Signal
International and its recruiters was clear from the speakers at Wednesday's
rally, which included: <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3;background:white'><![if !supportLists]><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><b>US Congressman Dennis Kucinich</b> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3;background:white'><![if !supportLists]><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><b>Barbara Ehrenreich, author of <i>Nickeled and
Dimed</i></b> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3;background:white'><![if !supportLists]><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><b>Rev. Graylan Hagler, Senior Minister,
Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ</b> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3;background:white'><![if !supportLists]><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><b>Jon Hiatt, General Counsel, AFL-CIO</b> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3;background:white'><![if !supportLists]><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><b>John Cavanagh, director, Institute of Policy
Studies</b> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3;background:white'><![if !supportLists]><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><b>John Flynn, President, International Union of
Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers</b> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3;background:white'><![if !supportLists]><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><b>Sarita Gupta, Executive Director, Jobs With
Justice </b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3;background:white'><![if !supportLists]><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><b>Indian Workers' Congress organizer Sabulal
Vijayan</b> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3;background:white'><![if !supportLists]><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><b>Saket Soni, director, New Orleans Workers'
Center for Racial Justice</b> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in;background:white;-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial;
-moz-background-origin: -moz-initial;-moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;
background-position-x:0%;background-position-y:50%'><img border=0 width=500
height=375 id="_x0000_i1026" src="cid:image002.jpg@01C8CBE6.2B71E420"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in;background:white'><img border=0 width=500
height=375 id="_x0000_i1028" src="cid:image003.jpg@01C8CBE6.2B71E420"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in;background:white'>More pics at <span
style='font-family:"Arial Narrow","sans-serif";color:navy'><a
href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwjnational/sets/72157605558256422/"
title="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwjnational/sets/72157605558256422/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwjnational/sets/72157605558256422/</a>.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in;background:white'>In addition, labor rights group
Jobs With Justice held <b>solidarity actions in 10 cities across the US</b> on
Wednesday: Atlanta, GA; Boston, MA; Portland, OR; Knoxville, TN; Richmond, VA;
Chicago, IL; Salt Lake City, UT; New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA; and San
Francisco, CA. Last week, Jobs With Justice members wrote over 9,000 letters to
US Congress in support of the workers.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in;background:white;-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial;
-moz-background-origin: -moz-initial;-moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;
background-position-x:0%;background-position-y:50%'>"But our victory today
is not yet complete," Vijayan added, referring to the Department of
Justice's failure to release the labor trafficking survivors from the terror of
deportation by granting them continued presence in the US, as requested by Rep.
Kucinich and his 17 colleagues.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in;background:white;-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial;
-moz-background-origin: -moz-initial;-moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;
background-position-x:0%;background-position-y:50%'>"We live in constant
terror of deportation. We cannot work. We cannot see our families. We
cannot provide for our families. We are listening to our children grow up
over long distance phone calls. Because of the DOJ's inaction, our lives are in
limbo," Vijayan said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in;background:white;-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial;
-moz-background-origin: -moz-initial;-moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;
background-position-x:0%;background-position-y:50%'>After the workers broke the
fast in a ceremony blessed by Rev. Graylan Hagler and other faith leaders, a
delegation of ten workers' allies went into the Department of Justice and met
with Constituent Relations Associate Director Julie Warren, who agreed to set a
meeting between the workers and the DoJ Civil Rights Division for the week of
June 16th.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in;background:white;-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial;
-moz-background-origin: -moz-initial;-moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;
background-position-x:0%;background-position-y:50%'>"Scripture says: 'Is
this not the fast which I choose to loose the bonds of wickedness, and to let
the oppressed go free?'" Rev. Hagland said, before he and other clergy
distributed pieces of bread to the workers. "That is what we're standing
here to do, to loose the bonds of wickedness, and to let the oppressed go
free."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in;background:white;-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial;
-moz-background-origin: -moz-initial;-moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;
background-position-x:0%;background-position-y:50%'>The hunger strike followed
nearly 18 months of organizing by the workers, who paid US and Indian
recruiters up to $20,000 apiece for false promises of permanent residency and
green cards. Instead they received 10-month temporary H2B guest worker visas
and worked at Signal's Gulf Coast shipyards under deplorable conditions. A
total of 20 workers participated in the strike, five of whom were hospitalized.
One of them, Paul Konar, fasted for 23 straight days before being stopped by
health problems.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in;background:white;-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial;
-moz-background-origin: -moz-initial;-moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;
background-position-x:0%;background-position-y:50%'>The workers escaped
Signal's labor camps in March 2008 and made a 10-day "journey for
justice," largely on foot, from New Orleans to Washington, DC. They
launched their hunger strike on May 14 to demand temporary legal status in the
US, Congressional hearings into abuses of guest workers, and talks between the
US and Indian governments to protect future guest workers.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in;background:white'>"The Department of Justice
has remained cold while these workers have taken extraordinary risks to open
the world's eyes to the reality of guest worker programs," said Saket
Soni, workers' advocate and director of the New Orleans Workers' Center for
Racial Justice. "This suspension of the hunger strike gives the DoJ one
last chance to fulfill its responsibility to combat the brutal reality of human
trafficking."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in;background:white;-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial;
-moz-background-origin: -moz-initial;-moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;
background-position-x:0%;background-position-y:50%'>The Indian Workers'
Congress is an affiliate of the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in;background:white;-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial;
-moz-background-origin: -moz-initial;-moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;
background-position-x:0%;background-position-y:50%'><b>Read statements and see
pictures from the rally at our blog: <a
href="http://www.neworleansworkerjustice.org/" target="_blank"
title="http://www.neworleansworkerjustice.org/"><span style='color:windowtext'>nolaworkerscenter.wordpress.com</span></a>.</b> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:1.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-1.0in;background:white;
-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial;-moz-background-origin: -moz-initial;
-moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;background-position-x:0%;
background-position-y:50%'><b>CONTACT: </b>Stephen Boykewich, Media
Director, New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice, <a
href="mailto:spboykewich@gmail.com" target="_blank"
title="mailto:spboykewich@gmail.com">spboykewich@gmail.com</a>, US Mob.
+1-504-655-0876<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:1.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:-.5in;background:white'><b>
</b>Ricardo Valadez, Program and Communications Director, Jobs with Justice, <a
href="mailto:Ricardo@jwj.org">Ricardo@jwj.org</a>, US Mob. +1-703-340-0610<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align=center style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:
0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;background:white;
-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial;-moz-background-origin: -moz-initial;
-moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;background-position-x:0%;
background-position-y:50%'><b><a href="http://www.neworleansworkerjustice.org/"
target="_blank" title="http://www.neworleansworkerjustice.org/"><span
style='color:windowtext'>www.neworleansworkerjustice.org</span></a><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p align=center style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:
0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;background:white'><b><u><o:p><span
style='text-decoration:none'> </span></o:p></u></b></p>
<p align=center style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:
0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;background:white'><b><u>www.jwj.org</u></b><u><o:p></o:p></u></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white;-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial;
-moz-background-origin: -moz-initial;-moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;
background-position-x:0%;background-position-y:50%'><b> </b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Consolas'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>[Workers' Rights] posts opportunities for you
to learn about and show solidarity with workplace and working class struggles.
And these events are opportunities for JwJ members to fulfill their pledge: <a
href="http://www.jwj.org/pledge.html">"I'll be there for workers' rights
at least five times a year!"</a> This is the core mission of Jobs with
Justice (<a href="http://www.jwj.org">www.jwj.org</a>), affirming that workers'
rights are human rights. To subscribe, send an email to <a
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Western
Mass Jobs with Justice<br>
640 Page Blvd #101<br>
Springfield MA 01104<br>
(413) 827-0301 <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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