(From TWD)
A story that definitely should be placed in your "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" file:
Hundreds of Filipino teachers recruited to teach in Louisiana schools were thrust into massive debt, unsavory living conditions and, in effect, indentured servitude, an attorney charges in a class action lawsuit to be filed today.
About 350 teachers were recruited through a placement service for Filipinos, which the lawsuit says charged them exorbitant application fees and transportation and housing costs and demanded up to 30% of their salaries their first two years.
"It was close to slavery," said Mary Bauer, lead attorney in the lawsuit set to be filed in federal court in Los Angeles by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Federation of Teachers and the law firm Covington & Burling. "There was fraud on a number of levels here."
Human trafficking going on right now in the Bayou, as if comprehensive immigration reform didn't need another reason to be worked on as soon as possible.
Amanda Kloer from Change.org puts this ridiculously under the radar story in its full perspective:
Together, the teachers have filed a lawsuit against the two employment agencies which set them up with teaching gigs in Louisiana — Universal Placement International (UPI), based in Los Angeles, and PARS International Placement Agency, based in Manila. The teachers claim these agencies, along with at least three employees of the East Baton Rouge school system, helped recruit Filipino teachers for what they claimed were lucrative jobs in America. However, the fees to get visas and be transported to the U.S. were exorbitant, and the cost of the substandard housing they received was highly inflated as well. Teachers were expected to turn over 30% of their salaries for the first two years.
UPI brought the teachers to the U.S. on H-1B guest worker visas. These visas, which are often used by traffickers and people looking to exploit workers, give the carrier permission only to work for their sponsoring company. So if any of the teachers chose to leave her position at UPI, she could be deported back to the Philippines. The H-1B visa makes it almost impossible for someone who comes to America and ends up in an abusive job to simply move to another company. And it's a system that creates a perfect opportunity for exploitation.
The H1-B visas are through the old Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, and seem to be a source of blatant misusage and immoral practices transpiring still in front of our eyes from private, under the radar, entities.
* And the mastermind crackjobs behind this modern day servitude system, the UPI and PARS, last year were somehow able to fend off
a lawsuit from both the AFT (American Federation of Teachers) and Louisiana Federation of Teachers on this exact issue.
Today, the ACT (Alliance of Concerned Teachers) over in Manilla came in full support of their colleagues enduring such hardships:
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) on Monday backed more than 350 Filipino teachers in Louisiana, USA who sued placement agencies for collecting illegal fees and forcing them to sign exploitative contracts.
“We fully support our fellow teachers abroad who are fighting for their democratic rights,” said ACT secretary general France Castro.
“These teachers were forced to work abroad because of the lack of better opportunities for them here in the Philippines, but are being exploited and cheated by placement agencies of their just wages.”
Castro also denounced the agencies which were responsible for exploiting the teachers.
With how the H-1B process is set up right now to open the door to this kind of behavior, who knows how many more cases like this appears around our nation? Heck, the terrific people at the Southern Poverty Law Center maybe filing another human trafficking suit for all we know.
So while the local government down in the capital of Louisiana lets basic indentured servitude transpire right in its jurisdiction (fat chance if Jindal does something on this), and our national government continues to look the other way, both the UPI and PARS will be apart of the many private groups still partaking in being proud owners of people. And they will gladly keep on keeping on their lovely little practice.
For the "good of business", no matter how immoral it is, just can't be stopped.
(From TWD, in the week long celebration of Social Security's 75th birthday, have a great rest of your Monday folks. And thanks for always reading and even rec'ing.)
Update: A few important updated developments in this story.
From Oh Dannyboy, who breaks some important news on this:
I'm an the AFT attorney:
In addition to Louisiana, UPI has teachers in California and South Carolina schools. The problem is there are about 19,000 teachers in the US on H-1B or J-1 visas. About half of those are in Texas.
A couple of facts for correction::
The AFT and SPLC brought this suit together.
AFT and the Louisiana Federation of Teachers were successful in the administrative claim with the Louisiana Workforce Commission.
The ALJ ordered UPI to pay the "placement fees" back to the teachers (approx. $1.8 million), which was only one-third of the amounts taken from the teachers.
AFT and LFT filed an administrative claim with the US Department of Labor that is still pending.
This is our third action to seek redress against all responsible parties.
Wow, so three lawsuits have been made in this situation. And the statistic of 19,000 teachers stationed in not only Louisiana, but also California and South Carolina (all currently under Republican Administrations at the moment, which could also lead to how this issue is getting overlooked or maybe not) is quite something.
Also, another notable in the comments section, from MD patriot
More on Filipino teachers in Baltimore (19+ / 0-)
From the Sun:
Filipino teachers forced to sell makeup
The principal of a Baltimore City high school recruited seven Filipino teachers on her staff to buy and resell thousands of dollars of Mary Kay cosmetics, a business arrangement the teachers entered reluctantly but felt would keep them in good standing with their boss.
Principal Janice Williams of the Institute of Business and Entrepreneurship high school in West Baltimore sometimes went to the teachers' classrooms last school year to ask for their credit cards to purchase lipstick, perfume, foundation and eye makeup, according to three of the teachers, who said they never intended to use the products and were unable to resell most of them.
Williams, who is an independent sales director for Mary Kay, stood to gain financially from each transaction.
Mary Kay cosmetics. Can it get more ridiculous?