Political Quotes

“I have to respectfully oppose the current legislation as it now states. Mr. Speaker, my district is home to the largest tuna cannery facilities in the world. One cannery is operated by StarKist, which employs about 2,700 workers; and the other cannery is operated by Chicken of the Sea out of California, which employs about 2,500 workers. I note also to my friend from Pennsylvania, it is true, Chicken of the Sea is foreign owned, but so is Shell and British Petroleum and they are legally doing business here in our country, employing millions or even thousands of American people. Today these companies employ, as I said earlier, 74 percent of our workforce. Approximately 85 percent of the private sector jobs in American Samoa are dependent either directly or indirectly on the tuna fishing or processing industry. Mr. Speaker, I asked specifically StarKist and Heinz executives what financial loss StarKist would incur if canned tuna was not included in this agreement. I was told that StarKist would suffer no economic loss, other than the exception to the fact that tuna workers in Ecuador are being paid 69 cents an hour.”