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Abramoff's Island Client To Finally Get Wage Hike
A moment of silence, if you please -- one year ago today, Jack Abramoff pled guilty.
A lot of things have changed since then. We've said goodbye to Reps. Tom DeLay (R-TX), Bob Ney (R-OH), Richard Pombo (R-CA), Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT), and the Republican congressional majority. And now, Rep. George Miller (D-CA), once Abramoff's nemesis in Congress, is set to make another change, finally closing an egregious loophole Abramoff successfully protected for nearly a decade.
For most of his career, Abramoff's prime client was the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), an American territory largely controlled by a garment industry dependent on its sweatshop labor. You see, for nine years Abramoff defended a status quo where clothing could be made in CNMI with the "Made in the U.S.A." label, despite the fact that it was all made by immigrants laboring at far below the federal minimum wage.
Led by Miller, Republicans and Democrats pushed to force CNMI plants to pay American minimum wages, but (with DeLay's help) Abramoff successfully fought them off.
But with Abramoff and DeLay gone now, Miller says that the Dems' miminum wage bill will also extend the wage hike to the Marianas.
Comments (3)
Anonymous wrote on January 3, 2007 12:26 PM:The garment industry in CNMI is nearly exclusively controlled by a Chinese tycoon named Willie Tan. Let's see if he helps all of the workers he imported get home after the bottom drops out of the industry.
Or if this is just another GOP mess for the Democratic Congress to have to clean up.
Lynne wrote on January 3, 2007 12:29 PM:Too bad these creatures will continue to receive pensions that are greater than my take home pay.
Macklin wrote on January 3, 2007 1:52 PM:What about all the other industries they have endeared themselves too. Like big oil,like agribusiness,like Wall St., like the pharmas, like.....the unfortunate truth is sweatshop workers are found in our own middle class now that two incomes are increasingly insufficient...so how about some true middle class tax relief instead of corporate or top end income tax breaks?....but enough liberally inspired working class drivel...1/20/09 ..just can't wait for that date to come...