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’Looming Disaster’ For Samoan Tuna Industry? ff

16 January 2007 American Samoa

If American Samoa’s minimum wage is tied to U.S. federal levels, as is being proposed by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the result will “kill” the territory’s economy, says Governor Togiola Tulafono.

American Samoa is currently excluded from a minimum wage measure that is working its way through the U.S. Congress. The bill, which would increase the U.S. minimum wage from its current $5.15 an hour to $7.25 over two years, for the first time includes the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands under federal minimum wage provisions. The CNMI’s minimum wage is $3.05 an hour.

American Samoa has a minimum wage structure that varies from $2.63 to $4.09 an hour, depending on the industry.

According to news reports, Speaker Pelosi now says she will push to have American Samoa covered by the congressional initiative, which has passed the U.S. House and is now before the Senate, where approval is expected to be assured. The measure will likely have to go through a conference committee comprised of members of both chambers to work out differences.

In a statement issued by Togiola, the governor says he regrets Pelosi’s position “but I can appreciate the kinds of pressure that she is working under or responding to.”

However, he warned that if American Samoa’s minimum wage is tied to the U.S. federal level, the result would be a disaster for the territory and for Washington.

“The fact of the matter is, if the proposal to include American Samoa in the new minimum wages (is approved), it will kill American Samoa’s economy, and it may not be possible to revive it except for the injection of large federal fundings. This essentially will make American Samoa totally dependent on the United States for funding like it was a short 30 years ago,” Togiola warned.

The South Pacific territory’s two largest employers are two tuna canneries, which together employ over 5,000 workers. If they are forced to raise their pay levels, it is likely the companies that run the canneries would shutter operations. Tuna canneries have operated in American Samoa since the 1950s.

Togiola said the initial exclusion of the territory from the minimum wage bill was “consistent with existing (U.S. federal) laws calculated to assist American Samoa as a territory, and not any particular company operating in American Samoa.”

Togiola, said he is monitoring the minimum wage legislation “very closely.” He said his administration will work with American Samoa congressional Delegate Faleomavaega Eni Hunkin “and we will discuss a common approach to solve this looming disaster.”

The author of the minimum wage bill, U.S. Rep. George Miller, a California Democrat, has been a long-time critic of the garment industry in the Northern Marianas. Some see the inclusion of the Northern Marianas in the legislation as Miller's way to respond to earlier labor abuses in that industry. Ironically, the Northern Marianas’ garment industry is collapsing as a result of current international trade rules that have removed duty-free status for garments made in those islands and shipped to the United States.