House of Crooks Presents: Tom Delay
Excerpt from Exterminator: Killing Workers
"Tom Delay made an all expenses paid trip to Saipan over the New Year's Day holiday of 1998. After coming back, he proclaimed the island "a free market success" because it has few labor laws. However, Delay doesn't seem to mind that in the process of having a free-market success, individuals work in sweatshops.
According to former representative Bruce Babbit, there are 30 factories on the island. The factories, many of them owned by the Chinese, are allowed to put "Made in the USA" labels on their products, as Saipan is a territory.
Not only do workers not receive any sort of minimum wage (they're paid under $3 an hour by billion dollar companies like Tommy Hilfiger), but, according to one source, but workers' civil rights are regularly abused.
For instance, pregnant women in the factory are forced to have abortions so that they can fulfill their contracts. Delay has argued, when praising Saipan, that manufacturers on the island are up against "...the forces of big labor and the radical left."the forces of big labor and the radical left."
www.salonmagazine.com/news/1999/02/04news.html |
