(Dorothy Sue Cobble – Labor Studies)  Jobs, Justice, and New Orleans: The Failure of Labor Policy in Katrina’s Aftermath. In the aftermath of Katrina, President Bush suspended the Davis Bacon Act, the federal law which requires building and construction contractors to pay a “living wage” and provide other minimum labor standards. In the absence of federal regulation, employers used federal monies to hire immigrants (many undocumented) for highly dangerous and unhealthy jobs at abysmal wages. Many local workers lost their jobs or were refused employment; those who were hired had no labor rights or protections, making it impossible for them to refuse unsafe work, to sue for later disabilities or illnesses, or at times, to even collect a pay check at the end of the day. The community, supported by labor, civil rights, and immigrant groups nationally, demanded Bush rescind his order, and he did. Nevertheless, many of the problems continue, mirroring the rise of unregulated labor markets globally as employers find ways around existing laws or pay paltry penalties when violations occur.  Not only are employers increasingly free to pit workers against each other, inflaming racial, ethnic, and cultural tensions, but the dismantling of New Deal labor rights and standards has meant the return of sweatshop conditions and abusive, unrestrained management in a wide range of industries and occupations. In some ways, conservatives opportunistically used the Katrina tragedy to push their anti-labor agenda. At the same time, it should come as no surprise that this brazen breach of federal responsibility occurred in New Orleans and primarily affected African-Americans and immigrant workers. New Deal labor laws did not cover the majority of African-Americans until the end of the 1960s, and U.S. courts continue to rule that undocumented workers are not entitled to basic civil and human rights when at work.  I could imagine then a paper that took the failure of U.S. labor policy in Katrina’s aftermath as a window onto the larger problems of unregulated labor among people of color, the ways in which government policy can engender racial, ethnic, and cultural tensions in low and no-wage communities, and how New Orleans, like the rest of the country, has a history of inter-racial organizing at the workplace (Arnesen on New Orleans’ waterfront workers, for example) and in the community (home health workers, ACORN as described in Vanessa Tait’s new book) that could inspire present and future efforts to rebuild a diverse, healthy, and economically just community.