"GRLF stands in solidarity with New Jersey workers who exposed forced labour and are demanding transnational labour justice across the BAPS global supply chain," May 2021

... [C]aste oppressed workers in New Jersey came forward to demand changes in the BAPS global supply chain of temple construction which was revealed to rely on forced labor... Global Labor Justice – International Labor Rights Forum (GLJ-ILRF) Executive Director Jennifer (JJ) Rosenbaum said: “Seventy percent of global trade now involves supply chains... artisanal, religious temple stone carving has been commodified in a way that is exposing workers to sub-minimum wage working conditions and dangerous risk of silicosis as the carving is warehoused in India.

... New Jersey workers exposed the sharp reality that some religious employers exploit workers similar to the worst multinational companies.  In this case, the elite BAPS denomination used guestworker visas to create a captive workforce for installation of the carvings when they are shipped to the U.S. and around the world.  The BAPS employer misclassified these temple construction workers as volunteers, who in reality worked twelve-hour days, seven days a week for about one dollar an hour.  The BAPS temple employer held their passports, restricted their movement, used caste based slurs, and forcibly deported dozens of workers who helped raise questions about the untimely death of a well-respected co-worker at the worksite.

... With the support of unions in the United States and India, these workers are demanding change to a global economy.  GLJ-ILRF stands with them and calls on the Biden Administration to continue to expand the federal government’s policies, programs, and practices to empower workers to organize and successfully bargain with their employers both as part of U.S. domestic economic policy as well as in migration, development, and foreign policy.”