Less than half of an original number of 3,000 employees will still be working at the cannery. (Photo: Tuna Seiners)

Hundreds to lose jobs in American Samoa cannery

AMERICAN SAMOA
Friday, May 14, 2010, 23:10 (GMT + 9)

Up to 800 workers in American Samoa's only remaining tuna cannery will lose their jobs in the next six months, company officials said Thursday.
  
The announcement is the latest in a series of cutbacks in the tuna canning industry that has seen a rival cannery close and thousands of jobs lost in the US territory of about 65,000 people.
  
Don Binotto, chief executive and president of Star-Kist Co. said in Pago Pago that 40 to 45 percent of the workforce will be cut due the inability of the cannery to compete with low-cost Asian rivals.
  
Binotto said the loss of 600 to 800 jobs will cut the number of employees to 1,200, well down from a peak of 3,000 in 2008.
  
"Our competitors have been using a model that moves the labour-intensive fish-cleaning process to low-wage countries," Binotto said.
  
"We have vigorously resisted this model, but it has become difficult to compete with wages nearly ten times those of Thailand and elsewhere, especially when combined with rising utility and shipping costs and the decreased value of duty protection."
  
He added Star-Kist, which is owned by South Korea's Dongwon Corp., hopes to develop a programme to prevent more job losses.
  
Last year rival tuna canning company Chicken of the Sea announced it was closing it's cannery in American Samoa with the loss of more than 2,000 jobs.
  
Both companies have partly blamed US legislation passed in 2007 that has forced US territories to raise their minimum wage in stages to mainland US levels.
  
The canneries dominated private sector employment in American Samoa and the latest job cuts will hit the territory hard.
  
Fish cleaner Meleah Spitzenberg said the decision was unfair.
  
"We need our jobs to pay rent and feed our families."
  
Employee Sina Levi, 20, said she feared being laid off. "I don't know how I will feed my family and meet obligations for church and village."

AFP

Related articles:

- StarKist continues with layoffs
- Tuna cannery cuts back due to rising costs

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