Started by: Ana Rosa Diaz, Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.

My name is Ana Rosa Diaz. I’m 40 years old and I have four children. I came to the United States on an H-2B guestworker visa from my home in Tamaulipas, Mexico. I work in a small town in Louisiana with other guestworkers, peeling crawfish for a company called C.J.’s Seafood, which sells 85% of its products to Walmart.

Our boss forces us to work up to 24 hours at a time with no overtime pay. No matter how fast we work, they scream and curse at us to make us work faster. Our supervisor threatens to beat us with a shovel to stop us from taking breaks.

We live in trailers across from the boss’s house, and we’re under surveillance all the time. The supervisors come into our trailers without warning, and they threaten to fire us if we leave after 9 p.m.

The supervisor also locked us in the plant so we couldn’t take breaks. One worker called 911. After that the boss rounded us up at 2:30 a.m., closed the door to keep the American employees out, and threatened our families.

He said, “As a friend I can be very good, but you don’t want to know me as an enemy. I have contacts with good people and bad people, and I know where all your families live. I can find you no matter where you hide.” We were terrified.

We want to work. We need to support our families. But we also want to be treated like human beings.

We joined the National Guestworker Alliance and decided to go on strike. The boss refused to take back his threats against our families, so now we’re taking our demands to Walmart.

Walmart says it doesn’t allow forced labor by any of its suppliers. But Walmart is profiting from the forced labor we lived through right here in Louisiana. And now they’re trying to cover up what happened to us — while refusing even to speak with us.

Walmart needs to meet with us immediately, and to show its suppliers that it won’t tolerate forced labor. We’re demanding that Walmart:

1. Cancel its contract with C.J.’s Seafood to show that it won’t profit from forced labor in Louisiana.

2. Sit down with us, the striking workers, immediately as a first step toward a real investigation — rather than a cover-up.

3. Sign the NGA’s Guestworker Dignity Standards to prevent forced labor and guarantee civil and labor rights for guestworkers across the Walmart supply chain.

In response to her gag order, Michigan State Rep. Lisa Brown and at least nine of her fellow congresswomen will say the word VAGINA tonight more than 100 times on the state Capitol steps in Lansing while performing “The Vagina Monologues.” Awesome! It should be underway now.

/SB

Congress calls for ‘complete, impartial, and fair investigation’ into WH leaks

“[T]here is no doubt in my mind much of it [recent leaks] flows from the White House,” said Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. “The president has a leak problem, and I think it will take action from Congress to fix it.” More from Bob Maginnis’ story below.

Read more: New York Magazine: Leftists push Obama to go negative

Greece’s center-right party finishes first in parliament vote

“With 99.78 percent of the vote in, New Democracy had 29.66 percent of the vote, or 129 out of the 300 seats in the parliament. The Coalition for the Radical Left (Syriza), which was the source of much of the nervousness in Europe and Greece’s creditors, came in a close second with 26.89 percent, or 71 seats.” More below.

Read more: Bain Capital: Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in a muddle

Socialist sweep of French parliamentary elections marred by Royal defeat

“More dramatic than Royal’s stunning defeat was the news last week that — despite support for her from Hollande and the Socialist hierarchy — the president’s current companion Valerie Treierweiler endorsed opponent Falorini via Twitter. The renegade endorsement was dubbed ‘the Twitterweiler affair’ in the French press and dominated discussion on the popular ‘France24 Debate.’” More here.

Make sure to read the related links and a great piece from Michael Barone. All below.

Have a great day!

-Adam

Pooling our collective knowledge is out best chance to avert provoking the Emperor.

B