Foreign Six Flags New England Workers Claim Mistreatment
Another interesting story from Six Flags. Foreign workers were promised 50 to 60 hours of work at a "summer beach resort" but were instead sent to Six Flags were they only got 40 hours a week. This story wouldn't involve Six Flags if there wasn't more:
But more than anything, Yasar complained about a double standard for international employees and American workers.
Yasar also feels he was unfairly fired last week by Six Flags New England for what park spokeswoman Mary Ann Burns called an "extreme safety violation." Yasar grabbed onto the rearview mirror of a shuttle bus carrying foreign workers from the park to their dorm.
Yasar admitted he grabbed the mirror. But he said he did so because the bus was half-full and he was furious at the driver, who frequently drove away as people chased after the bus and who often called the foreign workers "animals."
"The main point is their attitude towards us. We don't like it," Yasar said, standing across the street from the dorm-style building on Mill Street in Springfield where he and the other international students working at the amusement park have lived this summer. "They have no respect for you."
Fellow workers clustered around Yasar on the street recounted similar, unpleasant experiences this summer.
"It's terrible," Amanda Pessoa of Brazil said. "We've been treated very badly."
Pessoa and others recounted being denied bathroom breaks for one hour, forced to use separate entrances from American workers or being sent home early without warning if there was not enough work for them.
Six Flags says nothing like that happens and without evidence there really isn't much to say on the topic. International program workers always have complaints but I believe this is the second year in a row of complaints like this from Six Flags New England. Read the whole story at the link above.
