Unsafe Conditions for Undocumented Michigan Oil Spill Workers

Undocumented workers are working nearly 100 hours per week in unsafe conditions to clean up the Enbridge oil spill in Battle Creek, Mich., according to an investigation by our sister publication, The Michigan Messenger. The workers were bused in by a Texas company to clean up the spill, working 12- to 14-hour shifts in work sites with no bathroom facilites. Workers are paid only $800 per week for seven days of labor.

In interviews, workers admitted to being undocumented:

After receiving an initial tip from a Halmark worker who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, the Michigan Messenger visited the rally site on Saturday where the workers are picked up every morning. While speaking to about two dozen men there, half of them admitted to being undocumented workers. All of them asked not to be identified. [...]

Halmark company officials say that all the workers are legal. However, when pressed Phil Halmark, a supervisor on site for the company, admitted none of the workers were required to fill out I-9 or other immigration verification documents.

Halmark said the workers merely provided their names, addresses and social security numbers. They were not required to show identification nor were they required to show verification they had completed federally mandated clean up trainings. Halmark said the workers are not submitted to the E-verify system for verification either.

“They are independent contractors, they don’t have to fill out any of that paperwork,” said Hallmark in a phone interview. ”We get their name, address and social security number. We verify that everyone has one.”

He declined to discuss how those verifications were made, citing privacy concerns for the contractors. Halmark said his workers are recruited by former contractors and word of mouth.

Halmark did admit the company pays some workers in cash “because they don’t have banks or any way to cash a check here.”

The Michigan Messenger submitted photos that show what one worker said were safety violations to the Environmental Protection Agency and to Enbridge, which both said they would look into the issue.

The Obama administration has shifted away from workplace raids, and instead prioritizes employer audits to catch companies that exploit undocumented workers. But some companies slip through the cracks. Immigrants rights advocates say companies exploit undocumented workers because the workers are often willing to work for less money or feel they have no recourse against employers. This creates a bad situation for all workers in the U.S., Cristina Jimenez wrote at The American Prospect:

Here’s a reality check: Consigning undocumented workers to a precarious existence undermines all who aspire to a middle-class standard of living. Employers regularly rely on undocumented workers to perform low-paying, unregulated jobs and to put downward pressure on all wages in certain industries. Immigrants without legal status accept these jobs because they lack power and workplace rights; non-immigrants must accept the same diminished wages and degraded conditions or risk exclusion from many employment opportunities.