Petition to Ban Chain Gang Trash Pickup
New Orleans City Council
On September 24, Marlin Gusman used incarcerated New Orleanians as a prop, having them pick up trash in order to help him score political points in his campaign to be re-elected Sheriff. No worker deserves to be exploited like this. If a job is too dirty, dangerous or low-paid for workers outside the jail, the answer is not making workers inside the jail do it instead. Sign the petition below to call on the City to immediately ban the use of incarcerated labor for trash collection to ensure that this does not happen ever again.
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New Orleans City Council
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Sheriff Gusman’s use of incarcerated New Orleanians to pick up trash as part of a campaign stunt is just the latest in a long tradition of incarcerated people being exploited in our city. New Orleans also has deep problems with our trash collection system, including with contractors finding and retaining workers interested in doing this dirty and dangerous work for the pay and benefits on offer. We cannot continue to allow the exploitation of incarcerated people to be a strategy the City turns to when the trash collection system breaks down.
Stunts like Gusman’s undermine workers fighting for fair wages and treat people who are incarcerated as undeserving of basic labor rights. We demand the City Council immediately pass an ordinance banning the use of incarcerated labor to conduct trash pickup in Orleans Parish.