Wednesday, June 16, 2004

Immigrant Worker Fatalities in NYC

Good article in Newsday here on immigrant workers' deaths in New York after the death of Jian Quo Shen (yes, he did have a name) that I wrote about last week.
Shen was part of a growing cadre of Chinese workers who find work in construction by answering small newspaper ads or gather on Flushing street corners to wait for employers.

The list of the dead also includes several Mexicans, a Brazilian, an Ecuadoran and a Jamaican. The majority of day laborers whose main income comes from construction jobs are Latinos.

Most of the day laborers are undocumented immigrants and therefore are often forced to work in underground jobs under harsh conditions. Advocates say that sometimes, after a long work day, immigrants are not paid their agreed-upon wages or are abandoned by employers without pay.