A Chicago Tribune investigation found that some of the 160,000 guest workers allowed into North Carolina have been treated like modern-day slaves, cheated out of their wages, and shifted from job to job with little control over their fate. The investigation focused on federal records, lawsuits, and interviews with farmers, workers and advocacy groups.

Some workers are forced into dangerous jobs or are financially stranded because of broken promises made by United States labor contractors. A common tactic, the investigation found, is to offer good-paying jobs, only to dump workers into hazardous low-paying jobs.

Many have also been taken advantage of by foreign recruiters who charge hefty fees, putting them in severe debt that they have to pay off by continuing to work. Once in the U.S., some of these workers are underpaid, making them virtually slaves to their debt holders.

Some jobs do not work out or workers are let go early. Such workers can become part of an “underground” of illegal workers, adding to an already complex problem.

North Carolina Legal Aid lawyer Carol Brooke complained to federal officials in 2001 about workers who were forced to live in unheated tents in the winter and had their pay docked to use outdoor toilets. In 2002, she again asked officials to bar the firm paying the workers, and sent evidence detailing workers who were unpaid, paid at inconsistent pay rates, and given misleading information about what jobs they would perform. Brooke alleged that workers who complained about the treatment they were receiving were threatened with prison or deportation.

In one case examined by the Tribune, 30 guest Thai workers were brought to the U.S. in 2005 by a North Carolina labor contractor, who then removed their passports and showed them guns as a warning against them trying to get away. They were taken to New Orleans where they repaired hurricane-damaged buildings, during which time they lived in a condemned hotel.

“There was no electricity, no safe water, and they were told they couldn’t light candles and they didn’t have any money for food,” said lawyer Mary Lee Hall. The workers were eventually brought to a North Carolina farm, where they escaped. A lawsuit has since been filed against the contactors.

Source: Stephen Franklin and Darnell Little, “When guest equals ghost,” Chicago Tribune, November 11, 2007.