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New Orleans: Leaving the Poor Behind Again!
They are doing it again! My wife and I spent five days and four nights in a hospital in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. We saw people floating dead in the water. We watched people die waiting for evacuation to places with food, water, and electricity. We were rescued by boat and waited for an open pickup truck to take us and dozens of others on a rainy drive to the underpass where thousands of others waited for a bus ride to who knows where. You saw the people left behind. The poor, the sick, the disabled, the prisoners, the low-wage workers of New Orleans, were all left behind in the evacuation. Now that New Orleans is re-opening for some, the same people are being left behind again.
When those in power close the public schools, close public housing, fire people from their jobs, refuse to provide access to affordable public healthcare, and close off all avenues for justice, it is not necessary to erect a sign outside of New Orleans saying "Poor People Not Allowed To Return." People cannot come back in these circumstances and that is exactly what is happening.
There are 28,000 people still living in shelters in Louisiana. There are 38,000 public housing apartments in New Orleans, many in good physical condition. None have been reopened. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimated that 112,000 low-income homes in New Orleans were damaged by the hurricane. Yet, local, state and federal authorities are not committed to re-opening public housing. Louisiana Congressman Richard Baker (R-LA) said, after the hurricane, "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."
New Orleans public schools enrolled about 60,000 children before the hurricane. The school board president now estimates that no schools on the city's east bank, where the overwhelming majority of people live, will reopen this academic school year. Every one of the 13 public schools on the mostly-dry west bank of New Orleans was changed into charter schools in an afternoon meeting a few days ago. A member of the Louisiana state board of education estimated that at most 10,000 students will attend public schools in New Orleans this academic year.
The City of New Orleans laid off 3,000 workers. The public school system laid off thousands of its workers. The Archdiocese of New Orleans laid off 800 workers from its central staff and countless hundreds of others from its parish schools. The Housing Authority has laid off its workers. The St. Bernard Sheriff's Office laid off half of its workers.
Renters in New Orleans are returning to find their furniture on the street and strangers living in their apartments at higher rents - despite an order by the Governor that no one can be evicted before October 25. Rent in the dry areas have doubled and tripled.
Environmental chemist Wilma Subra cautions that earth and air in the New Orleans area appear to be heavily polluted with heavy metal and organic contaminants from more than 40 oil spills and extensive mold. The people, Subra stated, are subject to "double insult - the chemical insult from the sludge and biological insult from the mold." Homes built on the Agriculture Street landfill - a federal toxic site - stewed for weeks in floodwaters.
Yet, the future of Charity Hospital of New Orleans, the primary place for free comprehensive medical care in the state of Louisiana, is under furious debate and discussion and may never re-open again. Right now, free public healthcare is being provided by volunteers at grassroots free clinics like Common Ground - a wonderful and much needed effort but not a substitute for public healthcare.
The jails and prisons are full and staying full. Despite orders to release prisoners, state and local corrections officials are not releasing them unless someone can transport them out of town. Lawyers have to file lawsuits to force authorities to release people from prison who have already served all of their sentences! Judges are setting $100,000 bonds for people who steal beer out of a vacant house, while landlords break the law with impunity. People arrested before and after the hurricane have not even been formally charged by the prosecutor. Because the evidence room is under water, part of the police force is discredited, and witnesses are scattered around the country, everyone knows few will ever see a trial, yet timid judges are reluctant to follow the constitution and laws and release them on reasonable bond.
Read More
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1011-20.htm
There are 28,000 people still living in shelters in Louisiana. There are 38,000 public housing apartments in New Orleans, many in good physical condition. None have been reopened. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimated that 112,000 low-income homes in New Orleans were damaged by the hurricane. Yet, local, state and federal authorities are not committed to re-opening public housing. Louisiana Congressman Richard Baker (R-LA) said, after the hurricane, "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."
New Orleans public schools enrolled about 60,000 children before the hurricane. The school board president now estimates that no schools on the city's east bank, where the overwhelming majority of people live, will reopen this academic school year. Every one of the 13 public schools on the mostly-dry west bank of New Orleans was changed into charter schools in an afternoon meeting a few days ago. A member of the Louisiana state board of education estimated that at most 10,000 students will attend public schools in New Orleans this academic year.
The City of New Orleans laid off 3,000 workers. The public school system laid off thousands of its workers. The Archdiocese of New Orleans laid off 800 workers from its central staff and countless hundreds of others from its parish schools. The Housing Authority has laid off its workers. The St. Bernard Sheriff's Office laid off half of its workers.
Renters in New Orleans are returning to find their furniture on the street and strangers living in their apartments at higher rents - despite an order by the Governor that no one can be evicted before October 25. Rent in the dry areas have doubled and tripled.
Environmental chemist Wilma Subra cautions that earth and air in the New Orleans area appear to be heavily polluted with heavy metal and organic contaminants from more than 40 oil spills and extensive mold. The people, Subra stated, are subject to "double insult - the chemical insult from the sludge and biological insult from the mold." Homes built on the Agriculture Street landfill - a federal toxic site - stewed for weeks in floodwaters.
Yet, the future of Charity Hospital of New Orleans, the primary place for free comprehensive medical care in the state of Louisiana, is under furious debate and discussion and may never re-open again. Right now, free public healthcare is being provided by volunteers at grassroots free clinics like Common Ground - a wonderful and much needed effort but not a substitute for public healthcare.
The jails and prisons are full and staying full. Despite orders to release prisoners, state and local corrections officials are not releasing them unless someone can transport them out of town. Lawyers have to file lawsuits to force authorities to release people from prison who have already served all of their sentences! Judges are setting $100,000 bonds for people who steal beer out of a vacant house, while landlords break the law with impunity. People arrested before and after the hurricane have not even been formally charged by the prosecutor. Because the evidence room is under water, part of the police force is discredited, and witnesses are scattered around the country, everyone knows few will ever see a trial, yet timid judges are reluctant to follow the constitution and laws and release them on reasonable bond.
Read More
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1011-20.htm
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Gulf Coast residents, victims of Hurricane Katrina, will rally in Baton Rouge, La., Oct. 29 to demand a reconstruction program that provides prevailing wages, housing, health care and quality public schools, not profiteering by Halliburton and other Bush-Cheney cronies. The AFL-CIO has teamed up with the NAACP and the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition to organize the event.
In a one-two punch, unions are petitioning and lobbying Congress to restore the prevailing wage law (Davis-Bacon Act) in the region. It was suspended by President Bush Sept. 8. In addition to influencing House Democrats, these and similar efforts have prompted 37 House Republicans to write a letter to the president calling on him to reverse his decision by Nov. 8. “Davis-Bacon prevailing wages will not drive up reconstruction costs in the Gulf region,” they wrote. “Rather, they will help ensure quality work and fair wages for those impacted by the storm.”
Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute (EPI), sharply criticized Bush’s suspension of Davis-Bacon in the Gulf region.
He pointed out that the prevailing wage for carpenters on highway projects in Mississippi is $8.18 with no benefits, compared with $31.71 in hourly wages and $8.47 per hour in benefits for carpenters in the more highly unionized Los Angeles.
“Mississippi has the lowest construction worker wages in the nation, and driving it any lower would be a crime,” Eisenbrey told the People’s Weekly World in a phone interview. “The whole point of the Davis-Bacon Act is to prevent the undercutting of wages and benefits on federally funded projects. There is no evidence that paying workers less will result in savings. The contractors could just take bigger profits.”
On the other hand, when prevailing wages are protected by enforcement of Davis-Bacon, contractors use “highly skilled, more productive workers,” which speeds completion of construction projects, he said.
Eisenbrey was commenting on a report by EPI economist Peter Philips released Oct. 6, titled “Lessons for Post-Katrina Reconstruction — A High Road vs. Low Road.” Citing previous experiences, including the recovery after the 1994 earthquake in Los Angeles, the report says, “The need to rebuild quickly is no excuse for suspending the Davis-Bacon Act or affirmative action requirements as President Bush has done. On the contrary, the Davis-Bacon Act raises the skills of workers in the construction industry which shortens the time to complete large and urgent projects.”
Eisenbrey said another point of the study was that “when you enforce the Davis-Bacon Act and workers get better wages, more money is circulating in the local economy and the recovery is quicker.”
Robert Shaffer, president of the Mississippi AFL-CIO, told the World, “There is a whole barrage of federal rules that have been relaxed by [Bush’s] decision. Davis-Bacon has reporting rules, for example. If employers are no longer required to report on those rules, they do what they want to do, pay what they want to pay.”
The struggle to force reversal of Bush’s unilateral suspension of Davis-Bacon is one of the central demands of the labor movement’s dramatic call for a sweeping reversal of right-wing, pro-corporate policies. “Hurricane Katrina showed us the high cost of giving tax breaks to the wealthy rather than investing in America’s infrastructure,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. “It showed us just who is treated as expendable in our society — the sick and the old. It showed us the devastation of urban poverty and its disproportionate impact on people of color.”
The AFL-CIO has posted a petition on its web site. “Extreme right-wing Republicans have tried nine times in the past decade to abolish wages protections and suspend Davis-Bacon,” the federation charges. “The Bush administration is also using the disaster to attack federal standards by lifting many affirmative action rules for reconstruction contracts and suspending regulations limiting the number of hours truckers can drive when transporting fuel.” The petition calls on Congress to restore Davis-Bacon and reject other cuts.
http://pww.org/article/articleview/7935/1/291/
In a one-two punch, unions are petitioning and lobbying Congress to restore the prevailing wage law (Davis-Bacon Act) in the region. It was suspended by President Bush Sept. 8. In addition to influencing House Democrats, these and similar efforts have prompted 37 House Republicans to write a letter to the president calling on him to reverse his decision by Nov. 8. “Davis-Bacon prevailing wages will not drive up reconstruction costs in the Gulf region,” they wrote. “Rather, they will help ensure quality work and fair wages for those impacted by the storm.”
Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute (EPI), sharply criticized Bush’s suspension of Davis-Bacon in the Gulf region.
He pointed out that the prevailing wage for carpenters on highway projects in Mississippi is $8.18 with no benefits, compared with $31.71 in hourly wages and $8.47 per hour in benefits for carpenters in the more highly unionized Los Angeles.
“Mississippi has the lowest construction worker wages in the nation, and driving it any lower would be a crime,” Eisenbrey told the People’s Weekly World in a phone interview. “The whole point of the Davis-Bacon Act is to prevent the undercutting of wages and benefits on federally funded projects. There is no evidence that paying workers less will result in savings. The contractors could just take bigger profits.”
On the other hand, when prevailing wages are protected by enforcement of Davis-Bacon, contractors use “highly skilled, more productive workers,” which speeds completion of construction projects, he said.
Eisenbrey was commenting on a report by EPI economist Peter Philips released Oct. 6, titled “Lessons for Post-Katrina Reconstruction — A High Road vs. Low Road.” Citing previous experiences, including the recovery after the 1994 earthquake in Los Angeles, the report says, “The need to rebuild quickly is no excuse for suspending the Davis-Bacon Act or affirmative action requirements as President Bush has done. On the contrary, the Davis-Bacon Act raises the skills of workers in the construction industry which shortens the time to complete large and urgent projects.”
Eisenbrey said another point of the study was that “when you enforce the Davis-Bacon Act and workers get better wages, more money is circulating in the local economy and the recovery is quicker.”
Robert Shaffer, president of the Mississippi AFL-CIO, told the World, “There is a whole barrage of federal rules that have been relaxed by [Bush’s] decision. Davis-Bacon has reporting rules, for example. If employers are no longer required to report on those rules, they do what they want to do, pay what they want to pay.”
The struggle to force reversal of Bush’s unilateral suspension of Davis-Bacon is one of the central demands of the labor movement’s dramatic call for a sweeping reversal of right-wing, pro-corporate policies. “Hurricane Katrina showed us the high cost of giving tax breaks to the wealthy rather than investing in America’s infrastructure,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. “It showed us just who is treated as expendable in our society — the sick and the old. It showed us the devastation of urban poverty and its disproportionate impact on people of color.”
The AFL-CIO has posted a petition on its web site. “Extreme right-wing Republicans have tried nine times in the past decade to abolish wages protections and suspend Davis-Bacon,” the federation charges. “The Bush administration is also using the disaster to attack federal standards by lifting many affirmative action rules for reconstruction contracts and suspending regulations limiting the number of hours truckers can drive when transporting fuel.” The petition calls on Congress to restore Davis-Bacon and reject other cuts.
http://pww.org/article/articleview/7935/1/291/
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