Speaker Nancy Pelosi Accused Of Corruption In Decision Over Tuna Wages ff

So, the House of Representatives has passed its Federal Minimum Wage Act as one of its “first 100 hours priorities,” per the new Speaker, Nancy Pelosi.

But it turns out that the “raise” for all Americans contains two exemptions.

One is for the Northern Mariana Islands and one for American Samoa.

The Mariana Islands have a special low minimum wage. They have a Republican “representative” to Congress, who is not a “Congressman.” Their interests have, until recently, had the disgraced Jack Abramoff as their spokesman and operative.

American Samoa has a better deal. They are totally exempt from the minimum wage. They have a Congressman, Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, who is a Democrat, and who has voting rights in committees and on the floor of the House (so long as his vote doesn’t control the outcome).

Congressman Faleomavaega is well funded by Starkist, whose tuna-packing plant in American Samoa now pays $3.60 an hour as opposed to the new federal minimum of $7.25 after two years.

So, the difference if the federal minimum applied would be about $3.65 an hour. Assuming 40 hour weeks, and 50 weeks a year - it is doubtful that the tuna packers in American Samoa are getting paid vacations - the difference amounts to $7,300 per worker, per year.  So, 150 workers represent $1 million off the bottom line of Starkist, if they had to pay the federal minimum wage.

My understanding is that the plant employs about 300 Samoans. So, that’s $2 million a year saved by the exemption. If the plant is running two shifts, that would be $4 million a year saved.

Does Starkist have any friends more powerful than Congressman Faleomavaega? Why, yes. Starkist is owned by Del Monte, headquartered in San Francisco, represented for the past two decades by, tah dah, new Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. And the total exemption of American Samoa is not new, it has been around for about two decades.

Have the good folks at Del Monte made significant contributions to their Congresswoman, Nancy Pelosi? I imagine they have, and leave the interesting research to others at www.fec.gov. Cross reference that with the Board of Directors and top employees of Del Monte and Starkist - both lists available on the Internet.

But there is one final wrinkle in this story. The Democrats, and an unfortunate majority of the economically-illiterate press, have been describing this as a “raise for all Americans.” It is a raise for some, imposed by law. But it is a pink slip for some Americans. A basic law of economics is that when you raise the price of anything, you decrease the amount that will sell. This is a fundamental law, like gravity, or the fact that water runs downhill.

The press, mostly, and the Democrats, universally, pretend that there is no downside to any increase in the required minimum age. But there is. The situation in American Samoa may prove this point nine ways from Sunday.

When confronted with the American Samoan situation yesterday, Speaker Pelosi blinked continuously while saying that this “mistake” would be “corrected.”

I thought she was surgically incapable of blinking, but there she was on TV looking like a perp in a spotlight. She didn’t say how the “mistake” came to be. It remains to be seen whether the “correction” will be made.

But if the minimum IS applied in American Samoa, Starkist will likely move its plant one island over, from American Samoa to the independent island of Samoa, where American law does not apply.  Then the plant can continue operating with a pay rate of $3.60.  And 300 or so American jobs will have disappeared as a direct result of the federal minimum wage law. Neither Speaker Pelosi nor any other Democrat wants that economic fact proved in such an obvious way that even the sleepiest reporter would notice it.

Is Nancy Pelosi an example for women? Yes. She’s an example that women can be just as bought and paid for as men, when they take money from major benefactors and then do favors for those donors.  Not exactly a bright and hiny example, but an example, nonetheless.

Posted by John Armor on Jan 28, 2007 in the Canyon News - USA