Reply #61: tree cutters kicked out of hotel rooms

[Anita Garcia]

A group of tree cutters from a coastal town in Texas told me they were kicked out of their hotel rooms so that "government employees" (their term) could stay in their hotel rooms.
This is their story:
They were hired as tree cutters for the company Pike Electric to cut trees post-Katrina. They were cutting trees behind our house two days before Rita.
I asked them to stay for dinner. They said that they could not because a bus would be picking them up at 6:00 PM to return them to their tent city by the Home Depot or Wal-Mart to wash up and then take them to dinner. After dinner they would be getting back on the bus and returning to the tent city where they are forced to remain until 6:00 AM when a bus would pick them up and take them to a different part of town to cut trees.

One of the guys told me that he was upset about being forced to remain in the tent because the tent was cold, no blankets were provided and he brought warm weather clothes. Another one told me that for three days they had been staying in a hotel room and that the rooms were very nice. One morning they all received notes on their doors telling them that they had to pack up their belongings because they were being moved out for "government employees". The third gentleman told me he was upset because they were promised an increase in their normal wage. He was concerned about his family back home and Rita. He said he could have stayed home, received the same wage and been with his family. The first Gentleman told me that North Carolina workers for this company were getting $15.00 and hour, the Louisiana workers were getting $7.50 an hour and they were getting $8.00 an hour.

Little Pike Electric facts - contributed to DeLay's defense fund.