See my last diary for more about the history here. Anyway, this e-mail is a simple 'fwd'. I'm including the message below, as well as my response in case you can use it... or if you have anything to add:
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's home House District includes San Francisco .
Star-Kist Tuna's headquarters are in San Francisco , Pelosi's home district.
Star-Kist is owned by Del Monte Foods and is a major contributor to Pelosi.
Star-Kist is the major employer in American Samoa employing 75% of the Samoan workforce.
Paul Pelosi, Nancy 's husband, owns $17 million dollars of Star-Kist stock.
In January, 2007 when the minimum wage was increased from $5.15 to $7.25, Pelosi had American Samoa exempted from the increase so Del Monte would not have to pay the higher wage. This would make Del Monte products less expensive than their competition's.
Last week when the huge bailout bill was passed, Pelosi added an earmark to the final bill adding $33 million dollars for an "economic development credit in American Samoa ".
Pelosi has called the Bush Administration "corrupt".
My reply below the fold...
Pelosi has sponsored or co-sponsored versions of this bill, going back to 1999 (before Del Monte bought Starkist). Those early versions of the bill had the same exception for American Samoa. In fact Republicans introduced similar bills that had the same exception. American Samoa has never been subject to the minimum wage law. However wrong that might be, it is not something she inserted into the bill. It's important to note that American Samoa was included in the final minimum wage bill signed into law - HR2206.
It is likely true that lobbying efforts by StarKist to 'congress in general' were responsible historically for the American Samoa exception. In fact, over much of recent history, it was Tom Delay who'd vigorously resisted applying US labor laws to American Samoa and most notoriously, the Northern Mariana Islands:
http://www.cnn.com/...
This is something that's been written about extensively.
Pelosi has not received any money from Del Monte:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/...
See in particular, this passage (Lou Dobbs talking with CNN reporter Lisa Sylvester):
SYLVESTER: StarKist says it employs nearly 75 percent of the islanders. The U.S. minimum wage has never applied there, instead it is set by Labor Department committees. Pelosi insists she was not carving out an exemption. PELOSI: I don't think it is -- it's the Energy and Education Work Labor Committee that go forward with the legislation to make sure that all of the territories have to comply with the U.S. law on the minimum wage.
SYLVESTER: Pelosi says the intent was the new wage floor would apply to the entire United States and territories. Republicans call that back-pedaling.
SYLVESTER: Now, the average wage in American Samoa is $3.50. The House Education and Labor Committee will review the wages being paid there and investigate why they have been historically lower than in other U.S. territories. By the way, Lou, Del Monte has not contributed to Pelosi's campaign and, in fact, has given more to Republicans -- Lou.
DOBBS: Then there should be absolutely no question, for the good of the people in American Samoa, for our fellow citizens there it seems like it's time for some catch-up to be undertaken here.
DOBBS: There is agreement there, at least, for the Republicans and Democrats on this one. We'll see if they follow through now, Lou.
See also, this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
In particular, this passage:
I looked at Del Monte, which is San Francisco-based, but Del Monte executives have given to Republicans almost exclusively and have given nothing to Pelosi or the major Democratic committees. If they had, we would have printed it, but our standards are a little higher than the guilt-by-association standards of our competitor. (competitor=Washington Times)
As for the earmarks, there are a lot of them in the final bill... I'm not saying it's a good thing, but there's really no way I've found to identify who put what in the final bill. Most of these were added after the original bill didn't pass. Sure, Pelosi is one of the leaders, who had a lot of say in what went in there, but there were a lot of hands involved on both sides. There's a decent article about this here:
http://www.sfgate.com/...
Note that most of these earmarks are tax breaks, not spending. Same net effect, but different nonetheless. My guess is that the American Samoa earmark was basically to offset the effect that the minimum wage increase would have on the canneries in American Samoa.
Update: Dad's reply:
The Mouth of the House piece says the contributions came from Star Kist not its parent Del Monte and that it's Pelosi's husband who has the big investment in Star Kist. It smells and I don't trust Pelosi.
He had nothing to refute the bulk of it, and tuna does indeed smell. I think I'll just leave it there.