StarKist Samoa is seeing 600-800 workers off by year's end. (Photo: Stock File)

Starkist lays off 150 employees

StarKist Co is laying off the first 150 of several hundred employees at its tuna cannery in American Samoa.

In May, the firm said it would lay off 600-800 workers at StarKist Samoa by year’s end. The firm has been unable to compete with low-cost Asian rivals since US law mandated it raise its minimum wage in 2007.

Mary Sestric, spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh-based StarKist, said on Thursday that 151 employees were notified via letters this week that they were getting laid off; their last day of work will be 28 August.

The job cuts will slash StarKist's staff in Samoa to fewer than 1,200 from more than 3,000 in 2008, reports Associated Press.

Another cannery in the country shut down last year also due to rising minimum wage costs. A large portion of the Samoan community relies on tuna cannery jobs for its livelihood, and is thus suffering greatly from the layoffs, Radio Australia reports.

“We know that Starkist has offered some seemingly generous compensation plans for those who have been working for a long time,” said American Samoa's Chamber of Commerce Chairman Joey Cummings. “There's even payouts for those that are relatively new to the company, so we know they are at least taking some steps to ease that transition.”

The Starkist workers who were notified that they will lose their jobs have been warned that they will be let go immediately if they discuss the matter with the media.

“Starkist has always had a very, not an unreasonable policy, but certainly a very firm policy that they want the company business to remain with the company and whatever information about their business is just going to go out to the media, to the public, is going to be handled internally and processed in their own way,” Cummings told. “They don't want their workers speaking on the company's behalf or about the company.”

StarKist said it is having a hard time competing because cannery workers’ wages in American Samoa are almost 10 times greater than those of StarKist competitors in countries like Thailand.

The tuna canning industry has seen thousands of people lose their jobs in the US territory of some 65,000 inhabitants.

Related articles:

- Hundreds to lose jobs in American Samoa cannery
- StarKist continues with layoffs

By Natalia Real
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