Holy insurrection! We live less than 1/4 mile from this Signal International yard… Yet we totally missed this ‘revolt’ going on.

Pretty strong word to use when you’re talking about a relatively small group (out of more than 500) of guys who apparently have a complaint. Personally, we found it a bit irksome that these people were complaining about living 24 to a bunk house that had electricity, flooring, walls, and access to square meals at a time when most of the area’s native population was living 5 to 10 people to a 20 foot FEMA trailer — or, like us, living in a shell of a house that didn’t have any of the aformentioned amenities.

Signal’s press release: http://wlox.images.worldnow.com/images/incoming/SignalPressRelease.pdf

Truly? If so, time will tell.

I am here to make some money for my family . In india i did not stay in taj mahal .I am like regular indian guy from bombay (mumbai) This guys are just problem maker.Empty vessels makes more sound .Right now there are 6 person in bunk and we are getting paid $18.00 hrs . the food is ok (goat ,chicken, shrimp. fish , vegetable roti) where do we eat every week this choices in india?

Funny – Mr. Pickle said much the same thing about the pipe fitters and welders he was employing exploiting. The idea that just because one is not used a certain standard means they don’t deserve a lot better doesn’t hold water with me. Who gets to be the arbiter of that standard, the employer? And if so, why wouldn’t – shouldn’t – the employer offer what is competitive to the labor in the local market?

Perhaps this is an opportunistic lawsuit, perhaps not. Ask yourself this, Mr. Reddy: is that $18 per hour competitive for Pascagoula, MS? Is that total compensation? What about per diems? Labor is in high demand in the Gulf Coast, and you should convince yourself that you’re being paid a fair, competitive wage at the very least.

From what I understand of the problem is that Signal was hiring specialized skilled labor for it’s jobs on the cheap. Prest-O Change-O they outsourced. Unfortunately corruption on the Indian end of the outsourcing company led to two problems, a) many of the workers lied about their skills and were not qualified for the job b) the outsourcing agents lied claiming that these were permanent jobs leading to green cards in order to extract money from jobseekers. The claim about slave-like conditions by the protesters are essentially a way of avoiding get sent back to India.

The simplest solution is for the Indian police to fine the recruiting agents and get back to “job-placement” fees and for the workers to go home. However for the protesters in question, this is a sub-optimal arrangement when in fact their primary goal is actually staying and living in the U.S.

I am a worker in signal internation, all this is done by the kerala worker WHO ARE NOT WORKING IN SIGNAL OR GOT FIRED . I am here to make some money for my family . In india i did not stay in taj mahal .I am like regular indian guy from bombay (mumbai) This guys are just problem maker.Empty vessels makes more sound .Right now there are 6 person in bunk and we are getting paid $18.00 hrs . the food is ok (goat ,chicken, shrimp. fish , vegetable roti) where do we eat every week this choices in india?

they wouldn’t have staged a damn revolt if the conditions were decent.

and this is awesome. i’m waiting for shit like this to go down in dubai and saudi.

You are correct Vivek, the key for me is that it has only been taken of in 2007 for people travelling for purposes other than work. As these workers were on H2B visas and if US had been on the list there could have been a better control.

That’s a good point, but the standards for getting the Emigration Check Not Required (ECNR) stamp these days aren’t that high (linkamajig). I bet a lot of these guys would have ECNR status by virtue of either their education or their time spent in other countries or both.