y are reportedly being harassed and threatened by people back home. Despite the treatment, the Vietnamese laborers said they want to stay in Texas.

ave stronger institutions and are in a better position to manage these kinds of externalities."



The business council group promotes expanded U.S. trade and investment with Southeast Asian nations. It counts many of the largest U.S. multinational firms among its members, including Coca-Cola Inc., Chevron and Ford Motor Company. Mealy said a proposal from some Asean countries, discussed in this week's meetings, to pursue linkages among their home stock exchanges could be a boon for U.S. financial services firms. He said Southeast Asia will remain a hot destination for U.S. investment, even as economic growth in the region is projected to cool from the past couple of years. "Even with Asean and Asia cooling down to 7 or 8 percent annual growth, multinational companies will recognize that this is still where the growth is," Mealy said.



Immigrant Laborers Win $60M Judgement Against Houston Company

By Asiah Carey, My Fox Houston, 9 April 2011



Several immigrant laborers say they feel like they're free after living through an American nightmare. Those men, 26 strong, hail from Vietnam. The group traveled to Houston in 2008 to work for Coast to Coast Resources, a company based out of Harris County. The company promised the group jobs and work visas to serve as laborers near the Houston Ship Channel, according to the men. They were supposed to be paid $15 to $22 an hour for 30 months.



That sweet deal soon changed when the fine print kicked in. The men’s contract required the Vietnamese laborers to pay the American company up to $7,000 to get a job in the states, according to a lawsuit. The American dream turned into a nightmare, the men said. They claim the company charged the men: -- $125 a week to live in squalor at a Pasadena apartment complex -- $75 a week for transportation to work. “It was pretty terrible and to get them out of that was amazing," John Ha, the group’s attorney, said. "They sent a lot of people to threaten us," No Hai Le said.



Before the men got out, they filed a lawsuit claiming Coast to Coast Resources’ offer was indentured servitude. But that’s not all. According to the group, Coast to Coast Resources threatened the men saying any contact with outsiders would be punished by arrest and physical violence because Americans would scorn them for being from a communist country. The men worked only a few months of the 30-month term before the company fired them. The men fought back by filing that lawsuit.



The group won a $60 million judgment against Coast to Coast and other parties named in the lawsuit. An attorney for the Harris County company had no comment on the ruling. “It’s so beautiful to show that we as Americans care for justice,” Tammy Tran, lead attorney for the men, said. Though the men have won a major victory, they aren’t celebrating. The group now feels like targets back in Vietnam.
Lee, through a translator, said he’s worried for his family back in Vietnam. They are reportedly being harassed and threatened by people back home. Despite the treatment, the Vietnamese laborers said they want to stay in Texas.

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