[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 7 (Friday, January 12, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H509-H510]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1715

  Mr. Speaker, I would like to submit some documentation to be made 
part of the Record.


                                               Washington, DC,

                                                 January 10, 2007.

     Faleomavaega Comments on Minimum Wage Bill Now Before Congress

       Congressman Faleomavaega announced today that in response 
     to articles by the Washington Post and inquiries by the 
     Washington Times he is speaking out about the minimum wage 
     bill recently introduced by the House leadership.
       ``Despite recent claims made by the Washington Post which 
     suggest that American Samoa is exempt from the federal 
     minimum wage process, I wish to set the record straight,'' 
     Faleomavaega said.
       ``The Fair Labor Standards Act has applied to American 
     Samoa since 1938. After enactment, Industry Committees were 
     established to phase low-wage industries in to the minimum 
     statutory wage making American Samoa, as well as all other US 
     Territories, exempt from mainland minimums but bound by 
     minimums determined by Special Industry Committees. At the 
     time, Congress believed that application of mainland wages to 
     territorial island industries would `cause serious 
     dislocation in some insular industries and curtail employment 
     opportunities.'
       ``For this reason, since 1956, and in accordance with 
     Sections 5, 6, and 8 of the Fair Labor Standards Act (29 
     U.S.C. Sections 205, 206, 208), the Wage and Hour Division of 
     the US Department of Labor continues to conduct Special 
     Industry Committees every two years in American Samoa to 
     determine minimum wage increases.
       ``While these Industry Committees have been phased out in 
     other US Territories due to their more diversified economies, 
     American Samoa continues to be a single industry economy. In 
     fact, more than 80 percent of our private sector economy is 
     dependent either directly, or indirectly, on two U.S. tuna 
     processors, Chicken of the Sea and StarKist.
       ``As has been repeatedly stated at our Special Industry 
     Committees, a decrease in production or departure of one or 
     both of the two canneries in American Samoa could devastate 
     the local economy resulting in massive layoffs and 
     insurmountable financial difficulties.
       ``For this very reason, I do not support efforts to apply 
     mainland minimums to American Samoa at this time. The truth 
     is the global tuna industry is so competitive that it is no 
     longer possible for the federal government to demand mainland 
     wages for American Samoa without causing the collapse of our 
     economy and making us welfare wards of the federal 
     government.
       ``However, I continue to believe it is a crying shame that 
     for years StarKist's parent company, Heinz, paid its 
     corporate executives over $30 million per year in salary and 
     stock options and bonuses while workers in American Samoa 
     have not been paid decent wages on scale with our local 
     economy. This is why I have fought year after year for 
     increased wages for our tuna cannery workers and I will 
     continue to make my views known before Special Industry 
     Committees which have been established by federal law.
       ``CNMI should follow suit and support Special Industry 
     Committees which are in place to protect workers from labor 
     rights abuses. Ten years ago, I suggested to CNMI leaders 
     that they should come under the umbrella of federal law and 
     support Special Industry Committees but CNMI failed to take 
     action. In other words, unlike American Samoa, CNMI is 
     operating outside of the scope and intent of the Fair Labor 
     Standards Act and this has led to well-documented worker 
     abuse. For this reason, my colleagues have taken a stand and 
     said enough is enough and I support Chairman George Miller's 
     actions.
       ``Finally, I am aware that some may point a finger at 
     American Samoa as a result of labor violations at the 
     Daewoosa garment factory. But, in response, let me say that I 
     personally called for a federal investigation into the 
     reported abuses and the federal government took immediate 
     action. Consequently, the owner of the factory, Kil Soo Lee, 
     was prosecuted in federal court and the factory was 
     subsequently shut down. Since this time, American Samoa has 
     had no further labor violations.
       ``While I understand that for partisan purposes some might 
     like to compare American Samoa and CNMI in terms of the 
     federal minimum wage debate, I conclude by emphatically 
     stating that CNMI and American Samoa are not alike in terms 
     of our political relationships with the United States. CNMI 
     is under a `covenant' relationship and American Samoa is an 
     `unincorporated' and `unorganized' territory. Our situations 
     involving minimum wage are entirely different. American Samoa 
     complies with the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act 
     as determined by Special Industry Committees.
       ``By terms of its covenant, CNMI is exempt from compliance. 
     However, with the minimum wage bill now before Congress, 
     there is some question as to whether or not CNMI should be 
     brought under the purview of federal labor laws.
       ``Whatever Congress decides for CNMI, I am hopeful that 
     Members of Congress will recognize that American Samoa is 
     different

[[Page H510]]

     and that what Congress has established for our Territory is 
     necessary for economic stability,'' Faleomavaega concluded.

                [From the Saipan Tribune, Jan. 11, 2007]

             Why Is American Samoa Exempted From Wage Hike?

       Washington.--Republican leadership aides are accusing the 
     Democrats of using a double standard by imposing the higher 
     minimum wage on the Northern Mariana Islands--considered a 
     Republican protectorate-while continuing to exempt a 
     Democratic territory, American Samoa.
       Under a Democrat-backed legislation that is now before the 
     House of Representatives, employers on the Northern Mariana 
     Islands would have to pay workers the federal minimum wage. 
     American Samoa and the tuna industry that dominates its 
     economy would, on the other hand, remain free to pay wages 
     less than half the bill's new mandatory minimum.
       Democrats have long tried to pull the Northern Marianas 
     under the umbrella of U.S. labor law, accusing the island's 
     government and its industry leaders of coddling sweatshops 
     and turning a blind eye to forced abortions and indentured 
     servitude.
       Samoa has escaped such notoriety, and its low-wage 
     canneries have a protector of a different political stripe, 
     Democratic delegate Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, whose campaign 
     coffers have been well stocked by the tuna industry that 
     virtually runs his island's economy.
       Faleomavaega has long made it clear he did not believe his 
     island's economy could handle the federal minimum wage, 
     issuing statements of sympathy for a Samoan tuna industry 
     competing with South American and Asian canneries paying 
     workers about 67 cents an hour.
       The message got through to House Education and Labor 
     Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., the author of the 
     minimum wage bill who included the Marianas but not Samoa, 
     according to committee aides. The aides said the Samoan 
     economy does not have the diversity and vibrance to handle 
     the mainland's minimum wage, nor does the island have 
     anything like the labor rights abuses Miller claims of the 
     Marianas.
       The wage bill coming to a vote this Wednesday (Thursday on 
     Saipan) would raise the federal minimum from $5.15 an hour to 
     $7.25 over two years, the first such increase since 1997. The 
     10-year stretch between wage increases is the longest since 
     the mandatory minimum was created, and passage is expected to 
     be overwhelming.
       By including the Northern Marianas, Democrats say they hope 
     to put an end to abusive sweatshops, especially in the 
     garment industry. ``I have been trying to fix the deplorable 
     situation in the Northern Marianas since I first held 
     hearings on the issue in 1992, 15 years ago,'' Miller said. 
     ``But under Republican control, the House never even held a 
     hearing.''
       American Samoa has had a smattering of its own negative 
     publicity, and an Education and Labor Committee aide said 
     Monday that Miller probably will seek a review of the 
     island's labor relations.
       Last month, the U.S. District Court for the District of 
     Hawaii upheld the conviction of a Korean sweatshop owner, who 
     held 17 workers in involuntary servitude in American Samoa, 
     imprisoning them in his garment factory compound.
       But in American Samoa the tuna industry rules the roost. 
     Canneries employ nearly 5,000 workers on the island, or 40 
     percent of the work force, paying on average $3.60 an hour, 
     compared to $7.99 an hour for Samoan government employees. 
     Samoan minimum wage rates are set by federal industry 
     committees, which visit the island every two years.
       Faleomavaega's aides said Monday that the delegate was in 
     American Samoa for the opening session of the island's 
     government and would not comment.
       When StarKist lobbied in the past to prevent small minimum 
     wage hikes, Faleomavaega denounced the efforts.
       ``StarKist is a billion dollar a year company,'' he said 
     after a 2003 meeting with StarKist and Del Monte executives. 
     ``It is not fair to pay a corporate executive $65 million a 
     year while a cannery worker only makes $3.60 per hour.''
       But after the same meeting, Faleomavaega said he understood 
     that the Samoan canneries were facing severe wage competition 
     from South American and Asian competitors.
       Department of Interior testimony last year before the 
     Senate noted that canneries in Thailand and the Philippines 
     were paying their workers about 67 cents an hour. If the 
     canneries left American Samoa en masse, the impact would be 
     devastating, leaving Samoans wards of the federal welfare 
     state, warned David Cohen, deputy assistant secretary of the 
     interior for insular affairs.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Thank you so very much. I am glad you came to 
the floor to share that. There is nothing like a representative of the 
American people that the Republican minority seems to be so concerned 
about all of a sudden, sharing misinformation, that the representative 
of the people comes to the floor to set the record straight.
  The good thing about it is that we are in the majority right now, Mr. 
Speaker, and knowing that the issue will continue to receive the kind 
of attention it deserves, but making sure that mistruths are ironed out 
here in the Congressional Record, so that when we reflect on the facts, 
as I speak so fondly of, that we are on the right side of those facts.
  I would also like to share with the Members, since we try to provide 
information to the Members, mainly, and hopefully we will get to the 
American people, we want to make sure that Americans stay tuned on 
behalf of the rest of this 100-hour agenda that we are carrying out 
right now, with the Student Loan Relief Act, which is on Wednesday; and 
repealing big oil subsidies, that will be coming up; and also investing 
in renewable fuels, that will be coming up.
  All of this along these lines are going to make us a stronger 
America, a better America. These are issues, or issues that have been 
presented before Congress before, some of them passed on a committee 
level. Even some of them have passed in some amendatory form in a 
bigger package of legislation this House of Representatives, out of 
this House of Representatives. It should not be a surprise or a shock.
  As I mention it here now, well before next week, I am pretty sure we 
will have some Members on the other side of the aisle who will come up 
and say, you know, I was walking down the hall and someone told me we 
were taking tax breaks away from the big oil companies. What happened 
to the hearing?
  Well, I can tell you not only prior to the election, I know for sure 
I said it here on the floor in the last Congress, the 109th Congress, 
in the last Congress. If they did not know, if they did not know that 
this was going to take place, prior to the election, then I suggest you 
pick up a newspaper.
  We notice that some people don't read the newspaper here in 
Washington D.C., but that is another commentary. But I am excited about 
the fact that we are getting some of these issues done.
  We always encourage the Members to log onto www.speaker.gov. You can 
get any information that is coming up, if you want to learn more about 
the 100-hour agenda, but I would say if you want to e-mail the 30-
Something Working Group, www.speaker.gov/30something, and you can send 
us information on things that you are concerned about or questions that 
you may have.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I wanted to thank the Democratic leadership 
for allowing me to come down to the floor. The 30-Something Working 
Group will be back on floor next week. We want to not only ask Members 
but also staff and all Americans to celebrate the memory and the legacy 
of Dr. King and his entire family along with Mrs. Coretta Scott King 
for their contributions, not only to this country but to the world.
  As we carry out this day of service that the King Center for the 
Advancement of Nonviolence calls for every year, try to create some 
sort of public service project within your family of something that you 
can do for somebody else, because that is what his philosophy was all 
about.

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