DECEMBER 1995 · VOLUME 16 · NUMBER 12
B E H I N D T H E L I N E S
DECEMBER 1995 · VOLUME 16 · NUMBER 12
B E H I N D T H E L I N E S
As the U.S. government casts itself as an international crusader against forced labor, private contracting of prison labor is becoming big business in the United States, which has a certain "comparative advantage."
In 1984, there were 441,124 inmates in U.S. federal and state prisons. By 1994, the number of convicts more than doubled, with 860,632 prisoners in state prisons and 84,903 in federal prisons, according to the Laurel, Maryland-based American Correctional Association.
States are beginning to cash in on this expanding resource by turning over the administration of prison industry programs to quasi-private agencies. Currently, 39 states have authorized prison manufacturing of goods sold to the government or the private sector. Oregon's prison industry administration, UNIGROUP, now produces Prison Blues jeans that are sold in almost 500 U.S. stores and exported to France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
Doug Small, who owns the Nashville, Tennessee-based apparel company by the name of Horace Small, says private contracting of prison labor is "wrong from a moral and social perspective." But once the practice begins, manufacturers in labor cost-sensitive industries are hard pressed to take the moral high ground.
More than 16,000 federal and more than 53,000 state inmates work for prison industries, which pay between 23 cents and $1.50 an hour. In 1993, the sale of U.S. prisoner-made goods amounted to $1.3 billion, sales that are expected to approach $9 billion by the year 2000, according to Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Prison Industries Reform Alliance, which represents businesses that compete with prison-labor industries. Such sales would represent the production of 520,000 prison laborers.
"Private companies have begun to make big profits by using captive and cheap labor," says James Parks of the AFL-CIO. "If prisoners are going to work like other workers, then they must be paid like other workers."
Union Grounds Boeing
A majority of the more than 32,000 Boeing workers who walked off their jobs in early October 1995 voted in late November to continue their strike.
After the world's largest jet maker reached a tentative contract with the Machinists Union on November 19, more than 60 percent of the workers rejected the offer.
Workers struck October 6 to protest plans to cut wages and benefits and to transfer jobs to foreign and domestic subcontractors. During the past five years, the Seattle-based company has eliminated 18,000 union jobs. Boeing says the jobs are casualties of a weak market. The union says Boeing's explanation is incomplete.
"Many thousands of aerospace jobs are now in Mexico, China, Indonesia and Korea," says Connie Kellihen, a Machinist spokesperson. "Boeing 737 tail sections today are being built in Xian, China -- in a military-run facility," Kellihen says. "Are U.S. workers supposed to compete with Chinese workers under military discipline?"
Under the deal that workers rejected, the company offered a lump-sum 5 percent wage increase for the first year and said that it would give the union 90 days notice before making new subcontracting moves. In a letter to employees, Boeing Chair Frank Shrontz and President Phil Condit blamed European competitor Airbus Industries, saying, "Our customers -- airlines and governments -- tell us our products simply cost too much."
Sales figures suggest a shrinking market, but one in which Boeing competes well. In 1994, Boeing delivered 270 airplanes; Airbus delivered 123. In 1995, Boeing has received more than 200 orders for large commercial aircraft, compared to 66 for Airbus.
Tracking the Dirty Dozen
U.S. corporations export huge quantities of hazardous pesticides to more than 12 countries, according to preliminary results of a study that Los Angeles-based Foundation for Advancements in Science and Education (FASE) plans to release in late December 1995.
Despite its name, the Dirty Dozen pesticide list, first targeted in a 1985 campaign by San Francisco-based Pesticides Action Network (PAN), now lists 18 of the "world's most hazardous" agrochemicals.
The Dirty Dozen, which have been linked to severe health effects and environmental contamination, are: aldicarb, chlordane, DDT, EDB, heptachlor, lindane, paraquat, parathion, pentachlorophenol, camphechlor, chlordimeform, DBCP, aldrin, endrin, HCH/BHC, methyl parathion, PCP and 2,4,5-T.
The first nine of these pesticides are listed among U.S. Customs export records covering the years 1991 to 1994. During this period, Customs records indicate that the United States exported at least 58 million pounds of Dirty Dozen pesticides. Eleven million pounds went to countries where they are officially banned, according to FASE.
Chicago-based Velsicol produces chlordane and heptachlor, which it exports to 15 "tropical" countries, says company spokesperson Christine DiGangi-Hughes. "In tropical regions, the use of chlordane is safe," she says. "It has no bad effect on human health."
The Republic of Korea banned chlordane in 1979, but imported more than 100 tons of it in 1991 and 1992. Studies show chlordane is bioaccumulative, making it highly toxic to aquatic organisms and birds. It has been linked to human reproductive and endocrine problems.
Other countries that imported U.S. Dirty Dozen pesticides despite having restrictions on them include Brazil, Japan, India, Zimbabwe, Australia, Costa Rica, France, Israel, Thailand and El Salvador, according to the study.
-- Haider Rizvi