WASHINGTON D.C. - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is coming under fire from some republicans for a loophole in the minimum wage hike passed by the house this week as part of the democrats’ “First One-Hundred Hours” agenda.

Nancy Pelosi and her allies are under political seige over the minimum wage bill she so fervently pushed through. It raises the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour, even, for the first time, to the Northern Marianas Islands, a U.S. territory.

However, it doesn’t raise the minimum wage to American Samoa. That territory gets to keep its minimum wage well below $7.25.

A huge opponent to a miniumum wage hike there is Starkist Tuna, which owns a packing plant on American Samoa, a big employer. Starkist’s parent company, Del-Monte Foods, is headquartered in Pelosi’s San Francisco district.

Representative Eric Cantor (R) of Virginia said, “Now we find out that she is exempting her hometown companies from minimum wage. This is exactly the hypocrisy and double-talk that we have come to expect from the other side.” (huh? Double-talk you’ve come to expect? You sure you’re not talking about YOUR side? And speaking of SIDES, what happen to those friggin olive branches? What happen to bi-partisanship. What’s with this SIDES talk, huh?)

Hold the hypocrisy-talk, say top democrats. Their aides tell CNN American Samoa’s always been held to a different wage standard, including when republicans were in power. It’s so difficult for the island’s tuna canneries to compete with plants in Pacific-rim countries, that pay their workers next-to-nothing.

A Pelosi aide denies she’s been lobbied by Del-Monte. Company officials say the same. Records show Del-Monte’s employees contributed very little to democrats over the past two years. (how could they make campaign contributions on ANY political party when they make such a pittance?)
A Pelosi aide even says she had nothing to do with this part of the legislation. But today, the political storm forced her to backtrack.

“I don’t think it is ok. I have asked the education, labor committee as they go forward with the legislation to make sure that all territories have to comply with the US law on minimum wage,” said Pelosi.

Now, Pelosi may have an internal fight on her hands. The democratic congressional delegate from American Samoa said he’s going to talk with the party leadership about this doubling-back. He said his island needs this special consideration because of its reliance on the tuna business, and has gotten it since the 1950’s. (considering the price I pay for a can of albacore tuna, I’m guessing they DON’T need special consideration!)

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