[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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