These companies, Faleomavaega said, are “damaging our resources and our way of life.”
Instead, the Pacific should “shift our purchasing power to reward companies like Star Kist that are investing in the future of the U.S as well as Pacific Island nations.”
The outspoken American congressman accused Chicken of the Sea and Bumble Bee of outsourcing American jobs by exploiting cheap labor in foreign countries.
He cited what Chicken of the Sea did in American Samoa in 2009 after the island nation was hit by the devastating tsunami — the company closed its operations without the courtesy of discussion but outsourced some 2,000 jobs in Thailand where fish cleaners are paid less than 75 cents an hour.
Bumble Bee is no different, said Faleomavaega. “Bumble Bee employs about 500 workers in the U.S and like Chicken of the Sea, its fish cleaners are not U.S but foreign workers employed again in low wage countries.”
He said canned tuna processed by these two companies do not qualify for the U.S Department of Agriculture’s Buy American program.
Star Kist is the only company that qualifies for the Buy American program.
Faleomavaega fully supports efforts by Greenpeace to promote sustainable and equitable tuna industry in the Pacific.
