Minimum Wage Cruelty: Update

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: May 26, 2010

Washington, D.C. -- FALEOMAVAEGA CALLS FOR WALTER WILLIAMS, NATIONALLY SYNDICATED COLUMNIST, TO APOLOGIZE FOR HIS ‘BREATHTAKINGLY STUPID' COMMENTS ABOUT THE PRODUCTIVITY OF SAMOAN CANNERY WORKERS

Congressman Faleomavaega of American Samoa announced today that he is calling upon Walter Williams, a nationally syndicated columnist, to apologize for his ‘breathtakingly stupid' comments about the productivity of Samoan cannery workers.

In a recent column re-published in part by Samoa News on May 25, 2010 entitled ‘Minimum wage laws don't fight poverty' about the effects of Congress' 2007 minimum wage increase on the canning industry in American Samoa, Williams states:

“It's breathtakingly stupid to think of minimum wages as an anti-poverty tool.'

‘Poor people are not poor because of low wages. For the most part, they're poor because of low productivity, and wages are connected to productivity.'

“Walter Williams' ‘breathtakingly stupid' comments remind me of what the U.S. tuna industry said about Samoan cannery workers in 1956 when Van Camp, later known as Chicken of the Sea, lobbied the U.S. Congress to suppress wages in American Samoa,” Faleomavaega said.

“At that time, Van Camp employed about 300 women. Commenting on the company's desire to pay Samoan workers 27 cents per hour as opposed to the prevailing U.S. minimum wage rate of $1 per hour, Van Camp said:


The difference in labor costs is attributed to the lower production output in Pago Pago, where we have found that it takes from 3 to 5 Samoans to produce what 1 stateside employee can produce.

The company has found that it takes from 3 to 5 Samoan workers to perform what 1 continental worker in the United States will do. It is therefore felt that this justifies a lower rate for Samoans.

“As an African-American whose people have been subjected to similar prejudice, Williams should know better than to suggest that poor people are poor because of low productivity. Samoan cannery workers are not lazy, and before writing a column about workers he knows little about, Williams should know better than to imply that they are.”

“For the record, Samoan cannery workers are productive – so productive that they made StarKist and Chicken of the Sea two of the leading and most profitable brands of canned tuna in the U.S. Off the backs of Samoan cannery workers, mostly women, StarKist and Chicken of the Sea, which have operated in American Samoa for some 50-years, have exported about $100 billion dollars of canned tuna from American Samoa to the United States where corporate executives and shareholders have lined their pockets with hundreds of millions of dollars in profits while Samoan cannery workers barely make ends meet and receive a measly pension of about $100 per month after 20-years of productive service.”

“In no way are Samoan cannery workers' wages connected to productivity, as Williams suggests. And, as a matter of information, after some 55 years of doing business in American Samoa and only one day after the islands were struck by the most powerful earthquake of 2009 which set off a tsunami that left behind untold damage and destruction, Chicken of the Sea showed its gratitude to Samoan cannery workers by closing down its operations and outsourcing some 2,000 jobs to Thailand where workers are paid $0.75 cents and less per hour. To take advantage of U.S. duty-free treatment, Chicken of the Sea set up a skeletal operation in Lyons, Georgia where the company is now paying 200 cannery workers twice as much per hour as it ever paid one Samoan.”

“Shame on Chicken of the Sea. And shame on Walter Williams for asking –

‘Which is preferable for the Samoan worker – being employed at $3.25 an hour or being unemployed at $5.25?

“What is preferable is to do right by poor people. Anything less, including ‘breathtakingly stupid' comments which imply that poor people should be treated like second class citizens have no place in public debate.”

“In the future, I am hopeful that when Samoa News chooses to post links or re-publish in part columns by Williams that it will be more forthcoming with our people about identifying who Williams really is. Samoa News only noted that Williams is with Columbia Daily Tribune and the Columbia Daily Tribune only noted that Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University.”

“Samoa News and the Columbia Daily Tribune failed to state that Williams is also a syndicated columnist who is associated with Conservative Republican political columns and Right Wing News. His syndicated column is distributed by Creators.com and his latest column about Samoan workers has also been published by Townhall.com, the #1 conservative website which ‘arms conservatives with the tools and information necessary to have an impact in shaping the news,' according to the site.”

“In my opinion, Williams' recent column about American Samoa has little to do with economics. His agenda is political. And while he has every right to promote his right-wing ideology, the people of American Samoa have every right to know what it is he is promoting.”

“Throughout the U.S., Williams entitled his column ‘Minimum wage cruelty update' and used his national platform to exploit Samoan cannery workers for the sake of criticizing and taking cheap shots at the Obama Administration. Williams' actions were cruel and he owes our Samoan workers an apology for insinuating that they deserve to be poor.”

“And about his comment regarding ‘labor unions spending millions lobbying for minimum wage increases,' I hope next time around Williams will write a more fair and balanced column specifying that ultra-conservatives whose views he represents also spend millions lobbying. The only difference is ultra-conservatives spend millions to suppress rather than increase the wages of our lowest paid workers and that is the cruelest update of all,” Faleomavaega concluded.

In a closed, mercantilistic, free market economy, I would oppose the minimum wage due to the difficult-to-prove but very real economic phenomenon that price-floors automatically become price-ceilings, and price-ceilings automatically become price-floors. When there is a minimum wage, it relieves the entrepreneur of having to come up with a cogent system of compensation for his staff. The entrepreneur no longer thinks in terms of the cost/benefit ratio of dollars per unit of quality output, but rather, thinks in terms of the number of minimum wage employees required to accomplish the needed output. Thus, many jobs which might have paid much more than minimum wage, suddenly become even more jobs that pay minimum wage only.
On the other hand, we no longer live in a closed mercantilistic free-market economy, but rather now live in a globalized economy riddeled with unfair competition from countries whose "comparative advantage" stems from their exploitation of worker's dignity and human rights. In this kind of regime, I support a minimum wage, since if I am to be forced to compete with slaves, and thus if I am to be made a slave myself, I would at least want some official controls on the extent of my enslavement. Same goes for socialized health care, etc.,
If you want me to oppose minimum wage, socialized medicine, labor union monopolies, etc., then get rid of free trade, and we'll talk. Absent that, no matter what other measures are taken, anyone who works for a living will "gradually be forced down to the level of helotry."

TD (quoting Karl Marx, who, ironically, supported free trade)

Re: Lisa Williams
If you think about it, your argument is not so much in favor of minimum wage as it is against globalization and free trade. Being against free trade does not mean being against international markets, it merely means that each country has the right to restrict or tax imports.
While it is probably true that stateside workers are many times more productive than American Samoan workers, that is for a completely different reason that it would not have been in the company's interest to bring up - it's for the reason that one man with a bulldozer is many times more productive than a group of men with shovels. High state-side wages makes it more beneficiary to invest in automation of processes that could be done manually, albeit at a lower output per worker. Thus, with the added automation, even union-wage state-side workers can be more productive per hour worked, and even per dollar in wages, than Samoan workers who, due to their exploitation wage, make it more cost effective to do everything by hand.
If, on the other hand, the company were forced to pay tariffs for importing product made by even more heavily exploited Thai hands, then the company would be more likely to have kept the manufacturing jobs in American Samoa, and at the same time, American Samoan wages would have been more likely to rise due to the limitation of unfair foreign competition.
Contrary to the Assertions of Mr. Williams, in 1914, more than two decades before the advent of the United Auto Workers union, Henry Ford, when faced with productivity issues, decided to DOUBLE pay (per day) and reduce hours as a means of increasing productivity. The competition and the Wall Street Journal cried bloody murder, accusing Ford of trying to single-handedly destroy the auto industry. Ford's plan worked better than even he imagined. Ford was able to retain the best workers, and the increase in productivity went far beyond paying for its added costs. Employee turnover dropped so low that the company stopped keeping track of it, and the American middle class was born. This middle class eventually (after recovering from the great depression) becamse the consumer market that the rest of the world has been tripping over itself to sell to ever since.
So think about how a return to mercantilism (i.e. the government restricting trade as a source of tax revenue) might restore America's one time position of economic greatness. Think about how free trade affects Samoans. If it had not been for these things, Samoans would not need a minimum wage, because nobody would be being paid that little.
TD