This morning, Christopher Glory, in the eighth day of a water-only hunger strike to demand the U.S. government put an end to the abuses in a visa program that workers' rights advocates liken to human trafficking, was rushed to a Washington, D.C., hospital for strike-related health problems.

A spokesman for the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice (NOWCRJ) says that Glory's condition was improving and he could be released soon.

Several hours later, his four fellow hunger strikers and about 100 other Indian welders and pipe fitters who were lured to the United States with promises of good-paying jobs in Gulf Coast shipyards and permanent residence status, went to Capitol Hill to urge Congress to halt moves to expand the H-2B guest worker program.