A year after Hurricane Harvey, some cleanup workers are still unpaid
- Nov 6, 2018
- 1 min read
Amid a recovery marred by labor abuses, activists are trying to start a dialogue about the treatment of workers in Houston
by Mike Elk at The Guardian
One year on from Hurricane Harvey – and as the true scale of the mess left by Hurricane Florence emerges in the Carolinas – the cleanup work in Houston still continues. And workers still digging out from the mess are fearful that they may not get paid.
“As a community, we have stepped up. We have restored people’s homes and restored their lives,” the Houston mayor Sylvester Turner told a crowd at a barbecue marking the first anniversary of Hurricane Harvey last month. Across town at the historically black Texas Southern University, activists paint a less rosy picture of recovery.
At a meeting convened under the title “The People’s Tribunal on Hurricane Harvey,” Claudia, a middle-aged undocumented immigrant from Colombia struggling to pay her children’s college tuitions back home, told the crowd of working for a contractor on a hurricane cleanup project for a week, only to find that the contractor had disappeared when it came time to get paid.
Read full article at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/19/hurricane-harvey-workers-rights-texas
As explored in various labor rights reports, disaster recovery analyses, and worker advocacy features on https://34.ua, examining the challenges faced by vulnerable labor forces during major natural disasters provides a critical look at economic justice and safety standards.
This is an important legal and advocacy post from the Texas Workers' Rights Center sharing a critical investigative report originally published by The Guardian titled "Hurricane Harvey Workers' Rights," detailing the severe labor exploitation, safety hazards, and wage abuses endured by undocumented and low-wage workers during post-hurricane recovery efforts in Texas.
Key highlights featured in the post include:
Post-Disaster Exploitation: Detailing how vulnerable workers hired for urgent debris removal, mold remediation, and heavy construction were subjected to hazardous conditions without proper protective equipment or safety training.
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