Word: decatur
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...immigrants stood handcuffed in front of a New Orleans federal courthouse. They weren't on trial, but rather launching a suit against their employer, Decatur Hotels, and its owner, local magnate F. Patrick Quinn III. Brought to the U.S. to fill post-Katrina vacancies, the guest workers claim that their pre-signed contracts are all but fiction, and they are demanding compensation. The handcuffs - along with enlarged copies of their visa papers strung around their necks - were symbolic...
...came to the U.S. legally," says one Decatur plaintiff from Bolivia, who chose to remain unidentified for fear of recrimination. "But people took advantage of our economic desperation and the result is modern-day slavery...
...Recruited by subcontracted agencies in their home countries, 290 workers arrived on 10-month H-2B visas (for non-professional, non-agricultural labor) from Bolivia, the Dominican Republic and Peru to work at the front desk, in maintenance, and as cleaning staff for Decatur's 15 luxury hotels throughout the New Orleans area. Decatur, founded in 1988 by Quinn and Edwin Palmer III, prides itself on turning abandoned historic buildings into boutique hotels. Decatur's lawyer Patricia LeBlanc told the Associated Press on Aug. 17 that the hotel firm sought to use the H-2B program for the first time...
...they say the reality of their situation was much different from what they were promised. According to the contracts they signed with Decatur before coming to the U.S., the guest workers were to live in a "very nice newly refurbished hotel with large swimming pool" and assured "[t]ransportation provided to and from work." Instead, the workers say they were put in a half-rebuilt, mold-infested Decatur motel and left on their own to get to and from work. The pool water, according to one guest worker, produced fungal infections on contact...
...Through clandestine meetings with representatives from the New Orleans Workers Center, a community-based organization that advocates for workers' rights, the guest workers organized. Decatur's management improved the housing situations for most of the guest workers, but when it wouldn't budge on key issues, the workers sued and have since formed the country's first H-2B workers cross-employer alliance...