This examination of three communities emblematic of longstanding poverty and exclusion— the urban neighborhoods of East Biloxi, Mississippi, and the rural communities of Vermilion and Plaquemines parishes in Louisiana—reveals that government neglect at all levels extends beyond the well-publicized failures in New Orleans to encompass an entire region in distress.

Access to opportunity remains unequal—and unfair. In Biloxi, government officials acted first to save the city’s battered casinos by convincing state lawmakers to allow gaming on land. Not ensuring that the low-income residents of East Biloxi shared in the economic benefits, however, has made them victims of an enormous land squeeze, forcing them out of their neighborhoods and homes.

False assurances undermine future visions—and current optimism. The self-reliant residents of Erath, a mostly Cajun community in rural Vermilion Parish, began rehabilitating their houses the moment they returned after Hurricane Rita’s flood waters receded. After confusing signals about new flood elevations, plans for the town’s future, and possible homeowner grants, their progress has slowed and in some cases has been reversed by the agencies meant to facilitate it. Institutional neglect leaves communities at risk of losing everything—even their way of life.

Few state or federal funds have assisted the recovery of independent commercial fishers, who for generations have made Plaquemines Parish the center of their trade. Their inability to continue is draining Louisiana’s usually robust commercial fisheries, normally second in the nation only to Alaska.

These communities, and many like them, teeter on the brink. They are being rendered invisible.

Left behind. Forgotten.

The pattern of inequity in receiving recovery assistance from the government has been well established by past disasters. Federal disaster assistance tends to favor people who have economic assets at risk—that is, the affluent. Though the pattern may be familiar, it need not be inevitable.

Making sure the billions designated for recovery benefit the region’s most vulnerable communities remains a matter of political will. Action can and must be taken immediately.

• Make eligibility requirements for homeowner assistance inclusive. Both Louisiana and Mississippi can make improvements in their plans to use CDBG funds by dropping the penalties they currently impose on those homeowners that did not have insurance. Denying assistance to uninsured homeowners unjustly punishes the poorest and most vulnerable, many of whom simply lacked the money to buy insurance.
• Assign proportional attention and funds to affordable rental housing, a particularly critical resource for a community’s low-wage workers and poorest residents. Neither state provides anywhere near the assistance needed to replace the affordable rental units lost in the storms, let alone meet increasing demand. Funds should be used to supplement Low Income Housing Tax Credits, increase small landlord rental repair, and expand work force housing.
• Humanize and rationalize transitional housing. FEMA’s transitional housing program has been characterized by one expensive snafu after another, some of them almost inhumane— circumstances that do not bode well as the program’s 18-month term winds down. FEMA should develop and communicate a plan now that is especially attentive to the needs of low-income families before this situation grows into a major catastrophe.
• Improve accountability to ensure funds benefit the poor. Government at all levels must hold itself accountable to both hurricane survivors and the taxpayers underwriting this recovery. Ensuring that both Mississippi and Louisiana provide regular, clear demographic data on the disbursements of grants would provide important evidence of the extent to which equity is being achieved—while there is still time to change course if improvement is necessary.
• Partner with community agencies to minimize uncertainty and improve outreach. Confusing and conflicting information has been a hallmark of this recovery. Federal and state agencies should create stronger relationships with trusted nonprofit and grass-roots organizations, and rely upon their community expertise to ensure that vulnerable populations understand and access the benefits for which they qualify.
• Reform post-disaster housing assistance. Congress must pass and the president must sign the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006, sponsored by Senators Collins (R-ME) and Lieberman (D-CT). This bill would improve the nation’s emergency management capability by reconstituting FEMA and improving housing service delivery, to prevent the same bureaucratic bungling from accompanying the nation’s next disaster.
• The incremental injustices occurring during this recovery are less apparent to the eye—yet just as devastating—as the futility witnessed so widely on the nation’s TV screens one year ago.
• Decisive, firm action can reverse this course and provide low-income survivors the opportunities they deserve.

It is, after all, what the nation promised them. That they would be rendered whole. Get ahead. Thrive.

Oxfam’s report, Offside! Labor Rights and Sportswear Production in Asia, found that workers making clothes, shoes and other goods for global sports brands have been fired or threatened with violence when they have organized unions to lobby for better pay and conditions. The majority of Asian sportswear workers are women from poor communities, many supporting children and families. Oxfam said that none of the big sports brands are doing enough to solve the problem.

“In 2004 the Play Fair Alliance -— including Oxfam, the Clean Clothes Campaign and global unions —- challenged the industry to improve labor conditions, but sadly little has changed. Workers' right to form unions is crucial to achieving the big improvements needed on the factory floor but many brands are still not willing to play ball,” says Kelly Dent, Oxfam International spokesperson and the report's co-author.

Oxfam’s year-long survey of 12 sportswear labels found that US-based FILA was at the bottom of the league and had failed to address serious labor abuses in its supply chain. In one case, a FILA sport shoe supplier in Indonesia with an appalling record of worker abuse closed suddenly and without warning. A year later, none of its 3,500 workers have received any back-pay or severance pay. FILA refuses to reveal its role in the closure or take responsibility for the workers.

“Unless workers are free to bargain collectively for better pay and conditions, companies like FILA will continue to get away with this kind of outrageous behavior. Professional soccer players are represented by players’ associations, sportswear workers should be allowed to form unions too,” Dent said.

Oxfam says that Reebok has done the most to uphold workers' rights in Asia, while other big brands such as Nike, Adidas, Puma and Asics had made some improvements. However, the performance of the industry as a whole remains poor.

For example, an Adidas supplier in Indonesia where workers receive as little as 60 cents an hour for their labor recently terminated 30 union workers who took part in a legal strike for more pay. The Panarub factory near Jakarta makes the Adidas' Predator Pulse shoes promoted by England’s David Beckham and Frank Lampard, France’s Zinedine Zidane and Patrick Viera, Spain’s Raul and Brazil’s Kaka. The factory also makes the +F50.6 Tunit shoes promoted by Holland’s Arjen Robben, Germany’s Kevin Kuranyi and Brazil’s Ze Roberto in the lead up to the FIFA World Cup. However, Adidas has refused to help the 30 fired workers get their jobs back.

“The firing of these workers sends a very worrying signal to sports brands - that it’s acceptable to discriminate against union workers. In the past, adidas has shown leadership within the industry and the company should continue to do so by ensuring the factory reinstates these workers,” Dent said.

“The sportswear industry is a valuable source of jobs in Asia. But consumers and workers alike have the right to expect that global brands will not exploit the people making their goods,” concluded Dent.

For that reason Oxfam America's duty is clear: We and our project partners must help reform government policies, laws, and social injustices that deny people the right to live a decent life. We do this by providing funding, training, and the moral support people need to make real, substantive and transformative changes. The courageous and visionary people who do this work are setting out to build a movement for social justice—and Oxfam America is one of the few organizations to which they can turn for the help they need.

The payments, recently announced by the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance (MIRA), mark a major victory for the organization whose campaign against wage abuse is sending a clear message to employers across the construction, shipbuilding, and hospitality industries on the coast.

“It’s made companies aware they can’t continue to exploit the workforce and it’s created a reputation for MIRA--that MIRA will make justice be served,” said Vicky Cintra, MIRA’s organizing coordinator who has just been appointed to the United States Commission on Civil Rights as a member of the Mississippi State Advisory Committee.

“The success MIRA has had with this campaign shows what can happen when a community pulls together and demands its rights,” said Guadalupe Gamboa, a program officer for Oxfam America, which has supported MIRA’s advocacy efforts. “What’s worrisome, though, is the scale of the problem, and the fact that a small organization like this is shouldering a task that federal and state agencies should be responsible for. Those agencies don’t have enough inspectors and lack bilingual staffs. The absence of robust oversight results in the widespread wage abuse we have seen on the Gulf Coast.”

Concerned by the mistreatment immigrant laborers faced when they arrived to help with the recovery, MIRA launched its drive to address wage abuse within weeks of Hurricane Katrina’s strike. To date, it has helped workers recover $907,637 in back wages, $89,398 in worker and longshoreman compensation claims, and $3,184 in reduced court fines and bonds.

The alliance has used a variety of tactics, such as demand letters and direct confrontation, to convince contractors to meet their obligations. In four of the cases, employers owed back wages totaling $100,000 or more.

The most egregious among them was a drywall company for the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino, in Biloxi, Miss., which underwent a $550 million makeover following Hurricane Katrina. The drywall contractor had failed to pay its workers $250,000 in wages. Other delinquents on MIRA’s list have included roofing contractors, hospitality employers, and construction companies.

With an immense amount of reconstruction work still waiting to be done, the Gulf Coast has attracted about 100,000 new immigrants, according to recent census estimates. Many of them are Spanish-speaking and face a range of hurdles on their arrival here. MIRA, with Oxfam’s support, has grown rapidly into a powerful and vocal proponent for these newcomers.

“When we first started out on this journey, the going was rough and we had to use all activist tactics and strategies at our disposal,” said Cintra. “Now, I can call the CEO of a company and get through to them and directly report abuses against workers in their employ and they will respond. Before, the abuses went unknown, unreported, and unresolved.”

Despite their success, MIRA officials say what’s really needed to effectively address wage abuse on the Gulf Coast is for government enforcement agencies to do their job. Mississippi, they note, is the only state in the union without a department of labor, whose responsibility it is to enforce wage-collection laws. MIRA, in collaboration with labor organizations, community activists, and civil rights groups has for years been advocating for the establishment of such a state agency.

“It’s only when you have a mechanism for effectively enforcing labor laws that you will see an end to the type of wage abuse that has become so widespread on the Gulf Coast,” said Bill Chandler, executive director of MIRA.

For more information about MIRA, visit www.yourmira.org

> <p> ]]> No publisher mborum workers' rights immigrant rights 2009-02-08T07:42:57Z Press Release