DISPATCHES
Dispatches
From the FielD
LABOR CONDITIONS IN NEW ORLEANS
by stephanie hepburn
Five years after Hurricane Katrina
(and in the midst of the BP oil spill)
the Big Easy is still grappling with
guestworker labor violations.
Under the thick humid blanket of a New Orleans summer day, local and migrant
workers collect at gas stations on the avenues of Carrollton and Elysian Fields.
Some hold hard hats and
eagerly look out onto the
road. Some chat with one
another—a more enjoyable
way to pass the time while
they wait, wait and wait in
the hopes that a subcon-
tractor will drive by and of-
fer employment. Some days
are good, but many are not.
And today, the BP oil spill
has added new complications to these workers’ lives,
creating opportunities for
worker exploitation and labor rights violations.
On its face, much of this
story isn’t unlike the experience of many workers throughout the United
States. But this is New Orleans, and the tale of how
these workers got here is
quite different.
Those Who Rebuilt
After Katrina
Almost five years ago in
this same city, deserted and
weathered sailboats sat lop-
sided against the curbs of
city streets. Packs of aban-
doned dogs ran rampant
throughout Orleans Parish.
Road medians were used
as parking lots and traffic
lights blinked red—a signal
to stop to most people, but
to post-Katrina New Orlea-
nians it simply meant slow
down long enough to avoid
hitting pedestrians.
New Orleans at the time
was a no-man’s land—a
place where lawlessness was
commonplace and where
thousands of foreign workers found themselves in debt
bondage. With their visas
and travel documents confiscated and their pay with-
