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| Labor leaders fuming over TX plan |
| By The Houston Chronicle |
| Published: 09/14/2006 |
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LOCKHART, TX - Penny Rayfield's 35 assembly workers get neither vacation nor sick pay. Their salaries are barely above minimum wage. But they show up on time and don't hunt for work elsewhere. They seem happy to have a job, even one that pays about $4 less per hour than what assembly workers make, on average, elsewhere in Texas. Rayfield's company, Onshore Resources, has a sweetheart deal. It pays Texas exactly $1 a year for the sprawling building where it makes electronic circuit boards. It has no need to foot health insurance for the employees because the state provides their medical care. The for-profit business is tucked inside a private prison in this rural community 30 miles south of Austin. It's one of a handful of operations in which an estimated 500 state inmates in three prisons make products such as windows and air-conditioning parts for the private sector. The program, in both public and private detention facilities, is part of the federal Prison Industry Enhancement (PIE) initiative. It has long rankled labor leaders, who've complained quietly that it could slowly but surely displace better-paid workers outside prison. Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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