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Originally posted by 00PS
Pure Propaganda - 1liner...nothing else to say here
Move Along
Originally posted by 00PS
I actually talked with my College students about American stereotypes of China today.
I talked with them about the "slave" and "child" labor. They all agreed it's just American Propaganda.
Originally posted by 00PS
I actually talked with my College students about American stereotypes of China today.
I talked with them about the "slave" and "child" labor. They all agreed it's just American Propaganda.
I think so too. Besides...the article is only truthful in the matter they relate the workers as volunteer. They can leave whenever they want. That is true.
Prison labor on the rise in US
By Alan Whyte and Jamie Baker
Snip
There are presently 80,000 inmates in the US employed in commercial activity, some earning as little as 21 cents an hour. The US government program Federal Prison Industries (FPI) currently employs 21,000 inmates, an increase of 14 percent in the last two years alone. FPI inmates make a wide variety of products—such as clothing, file cabinets, electronic equipment, and military helmets—which are sold to federal agencies and private companies. FPI sales are $600 million annually and rising, with over $37 million in profits.
In addition, during the last 20 years more than 30 states have passed laws permitting the use of convict labor by commercial enterprises. These programs now exist in 36 states.
Prisoners now manufacture everything from blue jeans, to auto parts, to electronics and furniture. Honda has paid inmates $2 an hour for doing the same work an auto worker would get paid $20 to $30 an hour to do. Konica has used prisoners to repair copiers for less than 50 cents an hour. Toys R Us used prisoners to restock shelves, and Microsoft to pack and ship software. Clothing made in California and Oregon prisons competes so successfully with apparel made in Latin America and Asia that it is exported to other countries.
Inmates are also employed in a wide variety of service jobs as well. TWA has used prisoners to handle reservations, while AT&T has used prison labor for telemarketing. In Oregon, prisoners do all the data entry and record keeping in the Secretary of State's corporation division. Other jobs include desktop publishing, digital mapping and computer-aided design work.
The growth of prison labor has directly led to the destruction of other workers' jobs. For example, Lockhart Technologies, Inc. closed its plant in Austin, Texas, dismissing its 150 workers so that it could open shop in a state prison in Lockhart.
Linen service workers have lost their jobs when their employer contracted with the prison laundry to do the work. Recycling plant workers have lost their jobs when prisoners were brought in to sort through hazardous waste, often without proper protective gear. Construction workers have lost their jobs when the contractors were assigned to build an expansion of their own prison—essentially making the chains that bind them.
www.wsws.org...
MADE IN THE U.S.A.. . . BY CONVICTS
snip
A Texas company, U.S. Technologies, left 150 workers jobless when it sold off its Austin electronics plant. Just 45 days later, the same businesspersons opened up shop in a nearby town -- using prison labor.
Inmates at the notorious Angola State Penitentiary in Louisiana have been de-boning chickens for 4 cents an hour for a private firm.
· A Washington company "hired" prisoners to wrap software for Microsoft.
· Golden arches, golden shackles? Oregon inmates produce electronic menu boards for McDonalds.
· In New Mexico, inmates take hotel reservations by telephone. California convicts took TWA airline reservations over the phone -- during a flight attendants' strike.
· Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest of the nation's 88 private prison operators, teamed up with Company Apparel Safety Items in the first partnership between a private prison and a private manufacturer.
· Next time you're turning the lights down and getting all comfortable, consider this: Prisoners in South Carolina made lingerie for Victoria's Secret.
lpa.igc.org...
Doing time, 9 to 5
snip
At Oakhill Correctional Institution in rural Dane County, 17 inmates crank $1.15 million worth of office chairs a year out of a cramped basement factory, making anywhere between 20 cents and $1.50 per hour. The money is put toward release savings, victim restitution, and court obligations such as child support. The inmates can spend what's left.
The operation is part of Badger State Industries, Wisconsin's prison industries program, which employs about 600 of Wisconsin's 10,000 inmates to produce everything from coffee cups to furniture--and, of course, license plates
Tennessee inmates produce jeans for Kmart and JC Penney and wooden rocking ponies for trendy Eddie Bauer (list price $80). Some states produce toys, and many produce mattresses. Until last year, 150 Ohio inmates made car parts for Honda. Oregon inmates make uniforms for McDonald's. In Nevada, inmates convert luxury cars into stretch limousines. And nearly all of the programs produce furniture, the largest component of prison industries nationwide.
Other examples abound
In Arizona, where a hog slaughtering plant closed down, putting United Food and Commercial workers out of work, prison industry looked suspiciously like a union-busting mechanism.
The plant subsequently reopened--as a joint venture between the Arizona Department of Corrections and the state's Pork Producers Association.
In Aurora, Ill., in a minimum-security arrangement, inmates have replaced an entire third shift at the local Toys R Us, stocking shelves and sweeping up.
In Utah, inmate labor has crippled the private-sector asbestos-removal industry.
www.well.com...