From In These Times
By Rachel Metz

More than half of New Orleans workers have been victims of labor abuse, according to a new report from Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ), a nonprofit that mobilizes U.S. religious communities on workers’ rights. Despite these frequent violations of labor law, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) concluded 37 percent fewer wage and hour investigations last year than in the previous year.

“Working On Faith: A Faithful Response to Worker Abuse in New Orleans” analyzes IWJ’s 2006 surveys and interviews with 218 workers in a variety of jobs from construction to retail to bank tellers. According to the report, workers have experienced abuses including wage theft (47 percent), exposure to dangerous substances at work (58 percent), being unfairly fired or disciplined (42 percent) and discrimination (29 percent).

“New Orleans is a case of extremes, [showing] what happened when everything failed,” says Ted Smukler, public policy director at IWJ and principal author of “Working on Faith.”

The report identifies several 2005 Bush administration decisions that particularly hurt workers. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) August 31 suspension of health and safety standard enforcement, though reversed in most areas after five months of workers handling and inhaling mold, asbestos and other toxins, continued in seven parishes in and around New Orleans. On Sept. 6, 2005, the Department of Homeland Security suspended employers requiring to check immigration documentation (but not employees requiring to have documentation). This enabled employers to hire undocumented immigrants and then call in immigration authorities on payday to avoid paying workers. The wages being kept from workers were not as significant as they might have been, however, because of a Sept. 8, 2005 presidential proclamation suspending the requirement that private contractors receiving federal dollars pay at least the prevailing industry wage.

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