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OCR Page 1 of 33JUN-22-2000 10:18
ILWU
202 467 4875 P.02/03
INTERNATIONAL
1188 FRANKLIN STREET
Conghase
LONGSHORE &
SAN FRANCISCO
WAREHOUSE UNION
CALIFORNIA 94109
(415) 775-0533
AFL-CIO
(415) 775-1302 FAX
BRIAN McWILLIAMS
JAMES SPINOSA
LEONARD HOSHIJO
President
Vice President
JOE IBARRA
Vice President
Secretary-Treasurer
June 20, 2000
Ms. Lisa Myers
Correspondent
NBC News
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, New York 10112
Dear Ms. Myers:
I am writing to express my complete exasperation over your biased reporting on the
United States Sugar program that aired on the so-called "Fleecing of America" segment.
It was an unfair attack on our nation's sugar farmers and an attack on the workers that
depend on a viable sugar program.
The ILWU represents the remaining 2,000 sugar workers in the state of Hawaii. These
workers have union contracts that offer them decent wages and benefits as opposed to the
workers of many other sugar-producing countries where people work long hours for little
pay and begin work as children. Hawaii sugar workers are some of the highest paid,
most productive agricultural workers in the world. Your report concentrated solely on
the sugar producing companies, completely failing to consider the working people whose
jobs would be destroyed if the sugar program were eliminated. I believe the American
people would be interested in the fact that nationally 167,800 full-time workers are
employed by the sweetener industry.
The assertion in your report that the sugar program hurts consumers is not backed up by
the real facts. The raw price of sugar has been at a record lows throughout the 1990's yet
the cost of candy and other food products at the grocery store has gone up! Corporations
are not passing the savings of low raw sugar prices to the consumers now. Why would
they change their practice of keeping the windfall created when sugar prices drop if the
program were eliminated?
The timing of your "Fleecing of America" report is most interesting. As you probably
know, Congress will soon debate the funding bill for Agriculture programs and we expect
the same attacks on the sugar program during debate on the bill that we have faced year
"
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