for fish cannery

Business

Two-cents worth for fish cannery workers

American Samoa determines new minimum wage rates for tuna and government workers

By David North

fHE US government huffed and it >uffed in Pagopago and forced the 175-million-dollar man to pay his fish leaners another two cents an hour.

"he $ 75-million-man is Dr Anthony leilly, the Brit who is CEO of HJ. Heinz l Co., owner of StarKist the larger of imerican Samoa’s two tuna canneries, n 1991 his total corporate pay topped 75,000,000, several times the collective arnings of all 4500 tuna workers in imerican Samoa. he decision was the once-every-two ears determining of the minimum wage i American Samoa, a complex and nusual bit of American government igulation. he minimum wage for the tuna workers ad been set at $2.92 two years earlier, ut most of them had, in fact, been taking $2.98 an hour. he decision was that the new minimum ould be an even $3.00 an hour ifective some time in July), giving a few andred of them an eight-cents-an hour ise, and the rest a two-cents-an-hour X)st. (The canneries may add a few

mts to that level.)

he tuna workers, if anything, did better an the low-wage workers of the

merican Samoan government (ASG).

hundred of the least well-paid of e latter had been getting along on !.17 an hour; the decision was to raise e minimum to $2.37 an hour, but to :lay the effective date until October, •94, to give the new Lutali Administra

tion a chance to raise the funds to meet the increase.

Now giving 200 people another 20 cents an hour, or $B.OO a week, would come to all of $l6OO a week or $83,200 a year.

The problem is that employers, when faced with a minimum wage hike, also raise the wages of other hourly workers, to keep wage ratios in line with the past and that is much more expensive.

The lower rates, and the slower im plementation of the rises for the ASG workers, as opposed to the cannery workers, reflect the differential financial prowess of the two sets of employers, both of which have roughly 4500 workers each.

The territorial government has been having trouble meeting its payroll, has laid off a number of workers, and put others on a short-work week. It is also trying to collect back taxes, and raise new ones.

The tuna canneries, on the other hand, are owned by affluent multi-national firms. Pittsburgh-based Heinz is an American company, and its finances must be reported in some detail. The other, and slightly, smaller cannery on Pagopago harbour is Samoa Packing, now owned by a conglomerate in Indonesia, where corporate finances can be kept secret. Both companies process tuna in American Samoa, not because it is caught nearby and not because Pagopago buys a lot of canned fish they use it because it brings them attractive US tariff breaks as well as low wages.

Heinz world-wide operations created a net profit of about two-thirds of a billion dollars last year, and though sub corporate details are not plentiful, the tuna operation was said by the New York Times to produce more than $7O million in gross profits in a recent year. What is quite clear, however, is Tony Reilly’s good year in 1991, when his corporate pay, perks and stock benefits brought him more than $75,000,000, a bit of financial information brought to the islands by PIM in March, 1992.

No where else under the US flag is the minimum wage set as it is in American Samoa. Everywhere else (except CNMI) the Congress rules, and years ago put the minimum wage at $4.25 an hour. In American Samoa a six-member board, consisting of three islanders and three Mainlanders, sets the rate. Each del egation includes a representative of management, of labour, and of the public; the three Samoans are appointed by the Governor, and the three Mainlanders by the US Secretary of Labour. At least a four-to-two-majority is needed to raise wages, a major obstacle to the workers.

This year Goveror Lutali went to the territorial senate, appointing two of these matai-selected shiefs to represent labour (Senator Moaali’itele Tu’ufuli) and management (Senator Lealaifuaneva Reid); the third Samoan, representing the public, was Taesaliali’i Lutu, ASG’s Deputy Election Commissioner. The three Mainlanders were a staffer for the national labour movement (AFL-CIO), a businessman, and, as chair, a profes sional arbitrator. Everybody on the board got $238 a day for his work.

The hearings were lack-luster this year, due to the recent failure of the Mainland based Teamsters Union to win a rep resentation election; the union did not attend the meetings. Congressman Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, who once flirted with the idea of seeking congressional action to raise the Samoan minimum wage, did not press the wage panel to take any drastic action. Similarly, the appointment of the chair, who had done the task in the past, indicated a hands off posture on the part of the newly arrived Clinton Administration.

With all this in mind, and with little public attendance at the meetings, the six-member board made most of its decisions unanimously; the only roll-call vote was on the question of what the cannery workers should get a year hence.

The four management and public del egates voted for $3.05 an hour, the two worker representatives wanted more.