Slavery In Tulsa, Oklahoma

All Gordon Rule assignments in this course must be written in basic MLA format. This means:

Size 12 Times New Roman Font
Uniform double spacing throughout the entire document, and a new page for the works cited page with a properly formatted hanging indent (if/when a works cited page is required for the assignment)
A header with your last name and the page numbers, properly formatted
First page identifying information which includes your name, my name, the course title and the date, properly formatted
An original title, centered
Indent each paragraph one-half inch
Include in-text citations for every entry on your works cited list, properly formatted (if/when citations are required for the assignment)
Write in FIRST PERSON (this is not normally acceptable for MLA papers, but for sociology classes, this is the standard for academic writing) with a professional, academic and neutral tone.
7th or 8th edition MLA are acceptable.

Use of References
This assignment requires the use of references.

You are required to use THREE references. References must be high quality, academic references and you must include a works cited page that properly connects to your in-text citations.

ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS
Slaves in Tulsa
Could slavery still exists in the United States? According to Kevin Bales, the United States imports about 50,000 slaves every year (as qtd. In Carl 2011). In February 2002, the Midwestern city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was shocked to learn that they had slaves working in their midst. Workers recruited by a Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India, company signed contracts for labor overseas. Many paid the recruiting company, which was working with a US employer to recruit trained and experienced welders, a fee of more than $2000 to gain employment in the United States. Workers who agreed to the recruitment rules were issued visas and sent to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where they worked as welders for an American industrial equipment manufacturer.

The workers left their country with a promise of long-term residency, good jobs, and high pay. What they found was significantly different. upon arrival the workers’ visas and work permits were confiscated by the American company; the workers were told this was for the “safekeeping” of the documents. The group lived in barracks on the factory grounds, sometimes working 12 hour days and earning as little as $2.31 an hour. The company’s food was substandard, and many workers had to share beds because of the shortage of space. In the barracks, a sign stated that workers who attempted to leave would be sent back to India. Armed guards patrolled the grounds. Many workers also reported verbal threats and deliberate intimidation to keep them on the property, and the property was surrounded by chain-link fence with barbed wire. All of the gates to the property were locked and anything that the workers required (food, clothes, necessities) were brought into the property by the company. The only time that the workers were allowed to leave was for Sunday church services, and they were bused to and from a local church which was minutes from the company’s campus, and were watched by guards during the service.

As conditions for the workers deteriorated, a few of the workers were able to make contact with the local church’s minister, who was appalled at the conditions the workers described. A plan was made to free the workers from these circumstances and the minister and the congregation were able to assist the workers with escape.

One the workers were freed, the US employer claimed they were not involved in slavery or human trafficking and any fault was that of the Mumbai labor recruiting company. The employer claimed that the workers were merely temporary trainees, so they did not deserve the minimum wage or other employment benefits. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Council (EEOC) and the courts saw the matter differently and found the company guilty of exploiting the workers. A fine of $1.2 million provided about $20,000 for each worker.

After the case broke, many local community members helped the Indian workers find legitimate jobs, and immigration hearings allowed them to legally stay in the country. With new jobs, the workers sought to make their American dreams come true. This case has a happy ending, largely because it occurred in a country with a free press and a strong government. Unfortunately, most contract labor occurs in countries without either of these two important components (Overall, Michael, as qtd. in Carl 2011).

What You Need to Do
The points of view presented to you in “Slaves in Tulsa” illustrate some issues related to global stratification. Some common points of view that people have about this type of issue are:

Some people believe that people who come from less developed nations and work in the US for less than minimum wage may do so because they are better off than they would have been had they stayed in their home country.
Some suggest that this type of labor is beneficial to the economy of the US (to have workers who work for less than minimum wage and who perform jobs that other Americans do not want to do); others believe that it is detrimental to American workers who feel that these people are taking their jobs.
Some believe that when you come to the US for work, under any circumstances (documented or undocumented), then you should be protected under the law and given the same rights as all.
Your task is to think about the reading and answer the following:

What are the ethical issues presented in the reading?
What ethical responsibility would/do you have regarding this information?
In response to the above prompts, you are required to incorporate information from the following lessons:

Lesson: Got Ethics?
Lesson: The Sociological Imagination, The Promise and The Problem of Social Order
Note that use of information from these lessons does not count toward your required references for this assignment. You still need to find three high quality, academically oriented references. When you refer to the information from the lessons, your citation for the works cited entry should be as follows:

Sample citation in MLA format

In the above example, you will add the URL in place of “URL,” and you’ll add your own date of access in place of “DATE OF ACCESS” (for example, you’d put June 26 2019.). Note that the formatting includes a hanging indent and should be completed in size 12 Times New Roman font (as is required for all MLA work).

This assignment requires you to submit your work in MLA format. This means that you need to follow the instructions above. You need to complete your work in full sentences, and in paragraph format. A thesis statement with a brief introduction, and subsequent paragraphs which answer the questions above, and a brief conclusion are required. You should be able to complete this assignment in three to four typed and correctly formatted pages (this estimate is only the body of your paper and does not include the works cited page).