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Posted on 05/14/2010 9:31:10 AM PDT by Willie Green
PAGO PAGO, American Samoa (AP) ― American Samoa's last remaining tuna cannery announced it is cutting its work force in the U.S. territory by an additional 600 to 800 people to keep up with global competition.
Pittsburgh-based StarKist Co. said Thursday in a news release that the layoffs over the next six months will shrink its American Samoa work force to less than 1,200 employees, down from a high of more than 3,000 in 2008.
StarKist President and CEO Don Binotto said in the release that it is difficult to compete when workers' wages are nearly 10 times those of StarKist competitors in Thailand and other countries.
"This decision was not made lightly or without lengthy consideration of every option. We have exhausted every possibility to reduce our costs to remain competitive," Binotto said. "Our competitors have been using a model that moves the labor-intensive fish cleaning process to low-wage countries."
Binotto and other company officials arrived here Wednesday to meet with territorial government officials.
The territory's tuna industry has been hit hard by a 2007 federal law mandating an increase in minimum wages for workers in 18 industries until the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is reached.
The cannery workers' current minimum wage of $4.76 an hour is set to increase by 50 cents on Sept. 30, and reach $7.25 per hour by 2014.
Chicken of the Sea closed its cannery in American Samoa last year, citing the minimum wage law.
"This is a terrible situation for American Samoa, especially after we had a loss of more than 2,000 jobs after COS Samoa Packing cannery closed last September," territorial Rep. Larry Sanitoa said. "We will see what we can do at this point to help StarKist."
Don’t worry,Be Happy,the American taxpayer will take care of
you-Nancy Pelosi.
Minimum wage laws are immoral.
Starkist = Nancy Pelosi.
As an owner of Starkist, you would think that ultra-liberal Nancy would care about the poor workers and want them to get minimum wage.
Its not just the wages. Regulations and taxes are key hurdles as well.
Which tuna company is Nazi Peloski invested in?
Anybody know if Samoa is included in our unemployment numbers?
Sorry, my question was answered while I was typing it.
Pelosi takes donations from Starkist. And her husband owns a bunch of their parent company’s stock.
We’ll ever since 6 ounces became 5 ounces I haven’t bought tuna.
WAKE UP YOU IDIOTS. Customers are not stupid. We can do math.
I don’t buy ice cream unless it’s half a gallon, no 1.75 qt or 1.5 qt.
Thanks. I wish that I had a master list of companies heavily invested in or owned by leftist Dimms.
IMO, the absolute best canned tuna is Bumblebee. Whatever the price, that’s all I’ll buy. Same with Heinz ketchup, screw Jon Cary, but it’s all I’ll purchase, ditto Hellman’s mayo. This concludes this rant.
Maybe now they can pursue their passions since healthcare has passed. Who wants to do dirty work anyway?
I think the goverment has "helped" them enough already.
All you minority little guys, you ain't been screwed till you've been screwed by Rat Pelosi, enjoy.
Ever tried Duke’s mayo?
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Pelosi to the Starkist workers, “Sorry, Charlie”.
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The minimum wage should be $500/hour. Then everyone will be rich. Oops, I mean... unemployed.