Reflections from the Field: Disparate responses to labour exploitation in post-Katrina Louisiana

Leanne Mccallum

doi:10.14197/atr.201220152

Abstract

Hurricane Katrina was a devastating natural disaster that changed the landscape of the United States’ Gulf Coast. This was followed by a human-made disaster of failed policies, poor governmental oversight, and rampant labour abuse. This article compares how the anti-trafficking and labour rights movements responded to the widespread labour abuse following Katrina. It examines how the worker rights movement responded to systemic issues impacting labourers, and explores the anti-trafficking movement’s criminal justice response to severe forms of exploitation. It shows how the anti-trafficking movement failed to adequately address severe forms of labour abuse, as opposed to the more successful organising efforts of the worker rights movement. The article concludes by considering how the two movements may respond to conditions of labour exploitation emerging as a result of a new disaster impacting workers in Louisiana: the COVID-19 pandemic.

Highlights

Hurricane Katrina was a devastating natural disaster that changed the landscape of the United States’ Gulf Coast
It examines how the worker rights movement responded to systemic issues impacting labourers, and explores the anti-trafficking movement’s criminal justice response to severe forms of exploitation
The article concludes by considering how the two movements may respond to conditions of labour exploitation emerging as a result of a new disaster impacting workers in Louisiana: the COVID-19 pandemic

Summary

Rebirth of the Worker Rights Movement

The post-Katrina worker rights movement was established in response to social, economic, and racial injustice in Louisiana following the storm. At the time that Hurricane Katrina hit, anti-trafficking work in Louisiana had just begun This movement, as in other states, focused exclusively on the crime of human trafficking, rather than broader social justice issues like racial justice, worker rights, or immigrant rights. As Attorney General Alberto Gonzales stated at a conference in 2006, the government provided increased funding for prosecuting traffickers to ‘put a stop to the exploitation and abuse of laborers’.13. This was a top-down approach to investigate and prosecute individuals engaged in labour exploitation. The anti-trafficking movement’s trajectory and actions in the post-Katrina era were significantly different from those of the worker rights movement

Suspended labour laws and failed governmental protection

Worker Rights Movement Response

Lessons of the Past

Findings

History repeating