Today, I am featuring the statement of the Filipino teachers in Louisiana released on the day the Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC) heard their case.
Filipino Educators Federation of Louisiana
Press Statement
April 5, 2010
Stop oppressive forms of recruitment!
Scrap the unjust UPI teacher contracts!
We, members of the Filipino Educators Federation of Louisiana, call for the immediate end to the oppressive recruitment practices of Universal Placement International (UPI) and the scrapping of the unjust contract that were forced on the teachers. We are victims of these practices and have banded together as an organization to assert our rights and advocate for the protection of the rights of migrant teachers and workers as a whole.
We join all the Filipino teachers who share our aspiration for justice. We fully support the efforts of our fellow educators under the banner of the American Federation of Teachers and the Louisiana Federation of Teachers. We are not doing this only for ourselves and our families but also to the hundreds more who stand to be victimized if these excessively unjust practices are not stopped.
Our members will be testifying in today’s hearing to put on record the oppression we have experienced and the onerous contracts that were forced on the Filipino teachers under the threat of being “deported” or deprived of a job. We have experienced different forms of intimidation and manipulation that was aimed solely to strengthen the grip of tyranny of Lulu Navarro over all of us.
Filipino teachers have suffered from excessive and illegal fees and up to now our families are burdened with heavy debts back home. We have endured verbal threats and legal bullying to make us submit to the whims of the placement agency.
Indeed Lourdes “Lulu” Navarro, the owner of UPI, is not new to such criminal behavior as she is a convicted felon in the State of California on several counts of Medi-Cal fraud, grand theft, money laundering and identity theft.
We call on the Louisiana Workforce Commission to give relief to the migrant Filipino teachers deployed in the different school districts in Louisiana who have showed dedication to their vocation and commitment to quality education. We call on the commission to stand with the foreign teachers who have showed perseverance to make a difference in the lives of the children of Louisiana despite their horrible circumstances.
We appeal on the honorable commission to nullify the lopsided contract that is being utilized by Universal Placement International as a tool to oppress these migrant teachers. We appeal on the commission to stand by Louisiana’s public policy and tell the world that these inhumane practices have no place in the State; that no legal technicality can provide a smokescreen for repression.
We also enjoin all other Filipino teachers who share these experiences to come out and stand up for your rights. Let us broaden our unities against this injustice and together pursue our dreams for our families with dignity.
We call on all workers and parents here in Louisiana to support our cause for justice as this is not simply an issue about recruitment but an issue that concerns a grossly immoral and deceitful practice aimed at enriching a person at the expense of others. This issue is imbued with public interest as it concerns the education of our children.
Today, as we struggle for justice, we renew our commitment to serve the needs of the different school districts in the State of Louisiana. We enjoin the public in our aspiration to end all oppressive forms of recruitment. Join us in our call to put a stop to the illegal operations of Universal Placement International and the nullity of these burdensome teachers’ contracts.
Showing posts with label lourdes navarro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lourdes navarro. Show all posts
Friday, April 16, 2010
Monday, September 14, 2009
TFC Adobo Nation Program on LA Teachers
Universal Placement International (UPI) is now getting free advertising from The Filipino Channel. The problem is: what is being advertised is how this placement agency exploits its clients!
Let's help our compatriots in their struggle against this illegal recruiter by signing on their online petition at www.gopetition.com.
Let's help our compatriots in their struggle against this illegal recruiter by signing on their online petition at www.gopetition.com.
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Migrant teachers’ rights should be protected
I would like to share to everyone a press statement by the Partido ng Manggagawa (PM – Philippines) regarding the recent termination of more than 30 Filipino teachers under the East Baton Rouge School District in Louisiana.
Press Statement
June 10, 2009
Migrant teachers’ rights should be protected
The Partido ng Manggagawa (Labor Party – Philippines) is deeply concerned about the welfare of Filipino teachers who are deployed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
We have an ongoing probe into the plight of these migrant Filipino teachers. Our party is saddened that they have been subjected to iniquitous treatment and are still expose to very hard circumstances.
Leaving their families back home to be able to pursue the American dream, these teachers risked everything thinking that their credentials and talents will get them through.
Definitely, these people have discovered that following this dream is not at all easy. Hard work, it seems, is not even enough. In their case, they have to put themselves and their families in deep indebtedness, risk all their families’ resources for a shot at their dream of being financially successful in the future.
What is mainly pulling them down, however, is their being subject to a manipulative placement agency whose only objective it seems is to squeeze the maximum payments from them. What the agency is employing is clearly a form of debt bondage. Universal Placement International, headed by Lourdes Navarro, has put in place a web of policies and measures to ensure that these teachers would all be fully dependent upon the agency. Navarro employs threats, intimidation and deceit to ensure conformity from these teachers.
Many of these teachers are left with no choices but to kowtow to the placement agency’s whims as they are threatened by Navarro that she can have them fired. In many opportunities she makes it a point to assert to the teachers that she can influence some people in the EBR school district.
While, this is clearly a manipulative tactic utilized by Navarro, we can not blame the teachers from feeling threatened as it is the future of their respective families that are at stake.
Now, what makes this more distressing is the fact that at least 34 of these teachers have been terminated by the school district. We are anxious about the welfare of these Filipino workers.
Upon review of the circumstances leading to their termination, we believe that the process the school district employed may have violated the rights of these workers or at the very least has lapses that could have been handled better.
For one, there is lack of transparency as to the process of evaluation of these teachers’ performance. According to several teachers we talked to, there are no clear cut guidelines or procedure as to what can constitute termination and what the correct process should be.
Further, the school district should know fully well that foreign teachers will encounter issues related to differences in culture. The school district can not also discount the fact that aside from being in a new environment, the usual support system of these teachers, which are their family and friends, is not around.
While there maybe mentorship or training opportunities available for the teachers, some of those teachers who were terminated arrived in the latter part of 2008 and were not yet able to undergo these trainings. Take note that most of those terminated have been exposed to US schools for only less than a year.
As many of these teachers are in an adjustment phase, we believe that other constructive options were not seriously considered. A good example would be a transfer program in which teachers can be reassigned to other schools within the district where they may be able to perform better based on each teacher’s strengths and weaknesses.
And the fact that the school district, according to its associate superintendent for human resources, Elizabeth Duran Swinford, erroneously stated the reason for the termination of some teachers as “noncompliant” and will have them “refired” leaves a bad taste in the mouth. If they are taking these matters seriously, how come that the most important information on the termination papers, which is the rationale behind the termination, is wrong?
The school district’s action of terminating these teachers in a hasty process suggests that they treat labor, particularly migrant labor, as a commodity that can easily be disposed of. These teachers are human beings and they have families to feed and children to send to school.
We want to make it clear that we are not asking that special treatment be afforded to Filipino teachers. What we are advocating is the protection of the rights of all migrant workers and the whole laboring sector.
Lastly, PM strongly believes that labor rights are human rights and we believe that regardless of residence status, these rights should be guaranteed to all workers. Citizen, migrant or whatever your status maybe, the rights of a worker should be respected. ###
Press Statement
June 10, 2009
Migrant teachers’ rights should be protected
The Partido ng Manggagawa (Labor Party – Philippines) is deeply concerned about the welfare of Filipino teachers who are deployed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
We have an ongoing probe into the plight of these migrant Filipino teachers. Our party is saddened that they have been subjected to iniquitous treatment and are still expose to very hard circumstances.
Leaving their families back home to be able to pursue the American dream, these teachers risked everything thinking that their credentials and talents will get them through.
Definitely, these people have discovered that following this dream is not at all easy. Hard work, it seems, is not even enough. In their case, they have to put themselves and their families in deep indebtedness, risk all their families’ resources for a shot at their dream of being financially successful in the future.
What is mainly pulling them down, however, is their being subject to a manipulative placement agency whose only objective it seems is to squeeze the maximum payments from them. What the agency is employing is clearly a form of debt bondage. Universal Placement International, headed by Lourdes Navarro, has put in place a web of policies and measures to ensure that these teachers would all be fully dependent upon the agency. Navarro employs threats, intimidation and deceit to ensure conformity from these teachers.
Many of these teachers are left with no choices but to kowtow to the placement agency’s whims as they are threatened by Navarro that she can have them fired. In many opportunities she makes it a point to assert to the teachers that she can influence some people in the EBR school district.
While, this is clearly a manipulative tactic utilized by Navarro, we can not blame the teachers from feeling threatened as it is the future of their respective families that are at stake.
Now, what makes this more distressing is the fact that at least 34 of these teachers have been terminated by the school district. We are anxious about the welfare of these Filipino workers.
Upon review of the circumstances leading to their termination, we believe that the process the school district employed may have violated the rights of these workers or at the very least has lapses that could have been handled better.
For one, there is lack of transparency as to the process of evaluation of these teachers’ performance. According to several teachers we talked to, there are no clear cut guidelines or procedure as to what can constitute termination and what the correct process should be.
Further, the school district should know fully well that foreign teachers will encounter issues related to differences in culture. The school district can not also discount the fact that aside from being in a new environment, the usual support system of these teachers, which are their family and friends, is not around.
While there maybe mentorship or training opportunities available for the teachers, some of those teachers who were terminated arrived in the latter part of 2008 and were not yet able to undergo these trainings. Take note that most of those terminated have been exposed to US schools for only less than a year.
As many of these teachers are in an adjustment phase, we believe that other constructive options were not seriously considered. A good example would be a transfer program in which teachers can be reassigned to other schools within the district where they may be able to perform better based on each teacher’s strengths and weaknesses.
And the fact that the school district, according to its associate superintendent for human resources, Elizabeth Duran Swinford, erroneously stated the reason for the termination of some teachers as “noncompliant” and will have them “refired” leaves a bad taste in the mouth. If they are taking these matters seriously, how come that the most important information on the termination papers, which is the rationale behind the termination, is wrong?
The school district’s action of terminating these teachers in a hasty process suggests that they treat labor, particularly migrant labor, as a commodity that can easily be disposed of. These teachers are human beings and they have families to feed and children to send to school.
We want to make it clear that we are not asking that special treatment be afforded to Filipino teachers. What we are advocating is the protection of the rights of all migrant workers and the whole laboring sector.
Lastly, PM strongly believes that labor rights are human rights and we believe that regardless of residence status, these rights should be guaranteed to all workers. Citizen, migrant or whatever your status maybe, the rights of a worker should be respected. ###
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