View Full Version : Crazy Christian helps captive workers



metro
01-29-2008, 09:48 AM
'Crazy Christian' intervenes in Tulsa to save 52 captive workers from India

By Steve Lackmeyer
Business Writer

TULSA — The sun was setting as Mark Massey drove his passenger van up to the gates of the John Pickle factory on a frigid January day in 2002. He anxiously waited as five men from India quietly made their way to the fence.

With the Sept. 11th attacks still a fresh wound and authorities on high alert for any suspicious activities involving foreigners, Massey pondered the consequences of what he was about to do.

Would he face arrest if caught? Could he convince authorities that he was on a rescue mission — and that he hadn't aligned himself with the wrong side in the country's new war on terror?

Before he could worry any further, the workers started their careful dig under the barbed wire fence to get to Massey's van. The Pentecostal church parishioner couldn't help but be reminded of the opening scene to the television show "Hogan's Heroes,” which depicted allied soldiers trying to escape a German prisoner-of-war camp.

Before befriending a couple of the workers a few weeks earlier, Massey hadn't taken much notice of what was going on across the street. The neighborhood consisted of a lot of rundown homes, some boarded up, and several old factories — many of them long closed. He certainly didn't know that 53 men from India believed they were being held against their will at the John Pickle Co.

C.T Babu, among the few Christian Indian workers at the plant, slipped out one night in October 2001 and made his way with a co-worker to the Pentecostal church. Massey, charged with community outreach, saw the men sitting in the back row.

They were visibly nervous as he approached, so he kept the questions simple: "Where do you work?” and "Where are you from?” and "Do you have any families?”

He was surprised when they made return visits with more co-workers and even accepted an offer to attend a church supper. Massey had wondered how they had been brought to America, and he decided since they had to be brought in from India. It must be difficult to attract employees for the work and the men must have been earning good pay.

He wasn't sure he understood them correctly when they replied they were basically making $2 an hour. Concerned, Massey arranged with his new friends to meet with a local Indian family that could act as interpreters.

It was then that Massey learned of their plight. They said they had been tricked into thinking they were paying thousands in recruitment fees to start high-paying jobs at the John Pickle Co. The men spoke of miserable living conditions, seized passports, forced detainment and threats they faced if they spoke out.

Massey told the men he owned a nearby rental house that he was hoping to fix up and then sell. A key would be left under the mat for them if they ever decided they needed a quick safe house to escape from the factory.

Massey learned after the Thanksgiving weekend that conditions had worsened for the workers (one had disappeared), and the workers also told him Pickle was preparing to follow through on his threat to deport the "troublemakers.”

An e-mail later introduced in court showed Ray Murzello, Pickle's liaison with Al Samit — the Indian agency that recruited the workers — had two "troublemakers” in mind who had been complaining about the food.

"If these two individuals are to be put on a plane, they will need to be escorted all the way to India, and Gulam (Al Samit's owner) is ready to pay additional costs of air tickets for the escorts,” Murzello wrote in an e-mail. "Two tickets to exotic India anyone! John to supply the cuffs free of charge! It's a pity we cannot send them air freight or FedEx, which would assure quick, guaranteed delivery.”

Workers said the two men were summoned and told they needed to pack up their belongings. One ran out of the factory and sought refuge with a relative living in Tulsa. The other, Babu Pallai, escaped once he got to the airport ticket counter.

The Tuesday after Thanksgiving, Massey arranged with one of the night shift workers to crawl under the fence and visit with a lawyer from a local immigration law firm. They paid $100 just to talk and learned the company couldn't detain the employees and was violating the law by holding on to their passports. Only after the visit did Massey (and the attorney he spoke to) learn the firm already was employed by the John Pickle Co.

The following night Massey's cell phone rang. It was C.T. Babu.

"Things are bad,” Massey remembered Babu saying. "You have to come here tonight and pick us up.”

The escape was a success, and Massey found himself entertaining five house guests. The next day Massey learned Pickle was ready to act against all workers he considered troublemakers.

According to court testimony, seven were called up, their belongings gathered, and they were met by deputies with the Tulsa County sheriff's department who agreed to the company's request to escort them to the bank, where they were to close their accounts, and then to the Tulsa International Airport. Once workers arrived, they were handed envelopes with their passports and back wages. In Atlanta, the men were shocked to find only $7 in their envelopes.

While Pickle was deporting the seven men, Massey was visiting with company Vice President Joe Reeble, demanding that he release the escapees' passports. Massey said he then listened as he was lectured about global competition and how the company was doing what it had to do to survive.

Massey said Reeble told him the company would not release the documents.

Pickle then entered the office, Massey said, visibly angry and out of breath. Massey already had heard from workers saying Pickle had called him a "crazy Christian” and warned that he might be hurt. Reeble stood up and convinced Pickle to leave, saying "I'll take care of this,” Massey recalled.

Massey was then told the company would consider his request and would get back to him later in the week.

Back at Massey's home, the escapees were worrying about their co-workers. They knew all of the private phones at the plant were bugged — but one of the men Massey had rescued, Saji Varghese, knew the number to a pay phone in the factory area. Timing his call during the workers' break time, they reached one of the Indian workers who shared the grim news of the seven who were escorted to the airport by the sheriff's department.

Massey had to act fast. He went to the immigration attorney's office, where an assistant told him the lawyer was not available but that he should contact the media. He also contacted the immigration desk at the Atlanta airport and told them of the men's plights. The agents agreed the men all had valid six-month visas — and they were allowed to return to Tulsa.

In a series of meetings the next few days, as recounted later in court testimony, the remaining workers were threatened with deportation and told their lives would be ruined if they returned to India. Jagdish Prajapati called his wife and was told she had been contacted by an Al Samit agent with a warning that her husband would be hurt if he left the factory.

Massey was worried. How much longer would it be before Pickle decided to deport all of the workers? He frantically called every reporter in town. Only one, Rebecca Seebirt with KJRH Channel 2 News, agreed to meet with Massey and look at the paperwork.

The remaining workers at the plant watched on their television as Seebirt pressed Reeble on how they could be paid so little and whether they were being detained. They noticed how Seebirt's report triggered investigations by the fire marshal and health inspectors, who confirmed the workers' complaints about unfit living accommodations. The story blew up, and eventually all of the Tulsa news media were covering the workers' plight.

The remaining workers sat through one meeting after another, they later testified, hearing the same old threats. Some were called into the offices where they were questioned by company attorneys with a video camera rolling on how "good” their lives were compared with their homes back in India.

The workers stood their ground, telling the attorneys their homes and jobs were better in India. They again complained about the food, which they said was making them sick (one even burped as he spoke).

The remaining workers had enough. They contacted Massey and, with news crews watching, the workers walked out through the front gate to several vehicles brought by Massey and his friends.

Prajapati said Reeble protested and tried to stop them — but was then surrounded by reporters with microphones asking questions.

Massey's caravan drove away — with Reeble seen following close behind. The news crews stuck with the men, recording the celebration that followed at Massey's home. Reeble was seen pausing outside — and when it was apparent the news crews weren't leaving anytime soon — he drove away.

The men were free — but for how long?

Karried
01-29-2008, 10:07 AM
Wow... what was the outcome for these men?

Karried
01-31-2008, 02:06 PM
We need to contact this guy again...... looks like he might be needed here:

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — About 100 people who came from Nepal to work at a north Alabama factory seemingly vanished from a pair of apartment buildings, along with a lot of furniture and appliances, and can't be located, officials said Tuesday.

Immigration agents are trying to determine what happened to the Nepalese workers, among hundreds brought to the United States to work at a DVD factory operated by Cinram Inc., said Lauren Bethune, a spokeswoman for the Alabama Department of Homeland Security.

"We do not in any way consider it a security threat, but we do think it is important," she said.

A Huntsville television station, WAAY-TV, first reported on the missing workers.

Cinram's human resources director, Peter Hassler, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment. But a spokesman for a company that recruited the workers for Cinram said a contact in Nepal believes many of them have returned home.

"Most of the people he was talking to said they came to America, did what they wanted to do and went back home," said Doug Wilson, president of Ambassador Personnel in Thomasville, Ga. "These are people with pretty strong family ties."
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Mary and Tim Snopl told the TV station they rented apartments in two buildings last fall to about 240 workers from Nepal. But Mary Snopl said scores of the workers are now missing, along with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of furniture, televisions and kitchenware.
"I don't know if they're living in Huntsville or somewhere else, I just know they aren't living with us and they aren't working at Cinram," she said.
Wilson said his company was seeking a list of items believed to be missing.
Reports last fall said Cinram had hired about 1,350 foreign workers to package DVDs at its plant in Huntsville. Cinram — which describes itself as the world's largest maker of pre-recorded multimedia products — said it turned to foreign workers because the area job market couldn't fill its needs.
Bethune said about 100 immigrants were believed to be missing. Agents are trying to determine exactly what type of visas they used to enter the United States.
"It's possible that they had work visas, they expired, and they went home," she said.
The workers can earn $8 an hour working 12-hour shifts packing DVDs in boxes. Besides Nepal, Cinram has used foreign workers from Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Ukraine.

Steve
01-31-2008, 02:48 PM
I really appreciate the interest in the John Pickle story. The newspaper industry nationwide is at odds as to whether readers want to see stories of this depth anymore. So if you like what you're reading with this package, and you want to see more reporting of this depth, please don't be shy in letting it be known by upper management of The Oklahoman.
This is actually part of a series that concludes tomorrow. You can see the entire package, including a video, at NewsOK: How an attorney struggled to find justice for the Pickle factory workers (http://newsok.com/article/3199080/)
-Steve