Date: Tue, 28 Jan 1997 18:40:11 -0800
From: mnovick-AT-laedu.lalc.k12.ca.us (Michael Novick)
Subject: Report Says MicroSoft Uses Prison Labor.... (fwd)


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>From: mnovick-AT-laedu.lalc.k12.ca.us (eli )
>Subject: Report Says MicroSoft Uses Prison Labor.... (fwd)
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>Hello prisonact-list subscribers. i believe this may have gone out to the
>list when Prison Legal News first put it out, but i'm reposting it just in
>case. in case your wondering, the address this comes from is a temporary one
>of a friend i'm using.  to respond to this message, or for postings or
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>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Sun, 26 Jan 1997 22:16:03 -0500
>From: Sam Lanfranco <lanfran-AT-YORKU.CA>
>Reply-To: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy <LABOR-L-AT-YORKU.CA>
>To: Multiple recipients of list LABOR-L <LABOR-L-AT-YORKU.CA>
>Subject: Report Says MicroSoft Uses Prison Labor....
>
>Forwarded from source at bottom
>=======================>REPORT SAYS MICROSOFT USES PRISON LABOR TO PACKAGE
>SOFTWARE
>
>-- By Wes Thomas
>
>SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A. -- Many
>of Microsoft's products are packaged and shrink-wrapped by prisoners
>at Washington State's Twin Rivers Corrections Center (TRCC), according
>to Dan Pens, co-editor of Prison Legal News and a prisoner at TRCC.
>
>Pens tells Newsbytes that Exmark, a company specializing in product
>packaging and located in Monroe, Washington, and a subsidiary of Pac
>Services, utilized the services of 90 prisoners at TRCC who packaged
>50,000 units of Windows 95 demo disks and direct-mail promotional
>packets.
>
>Mark Murray, corporate public relations manager, says of the report:
>"At this point there is no Microsoft product for sale that is packaged
>at the Twin Rivers Correction Center. There may be demo packages that
>are boxed and shrink-wrapped as part of this program, but not products
>for commercial sale."
>
>"I am not aware of any Windows 95 product that was packaged at the
>Twin Rivers Correctional Center," he added.
>
>As far as the use of prison labor to do packaging, "We see this
>program as something that a number of companies in Washington State
>have worked with. A lot of public officials believe that this type of
>program helps to provide valuable work experience for prisoners. I
>don't think that we have an opinion one way or another."
>
>"We don't see this as a negative for the company or for the workers,"
>he said.
>
>Microsoft sold the majority of its software production and packaging
>plant, the Canyon Park facility in Bothell, Washington, to
>Japanese-owned Kao Infosystems Company of Plymouth, Maine this summer.
>"At this point, product packaging guys tell me that we have not done
>business directly with Exmark for a year or so," he added, but said,
>"It is possible that the company that took over the packaging facility
>may be doing business with Exmark or that an individual product group
>within Microsoft may be working with Exmark."
>
>Pens claims, "Exmark pays its prison workers the minimum wage
>($4.90/hr in Washington), but that figure is misleading. After
>deductions by the prison, prisoners can see a spendable wage of $1.80
>to $2.80 per hour, but the law authorizes up to 80 percent of a
>prisoner's wages to be deducted, meaning they could actually take home
>less than one dollar an hour. Exmark and other private industries
>operating in Washington's prisons do not have to provide their prison
>workers with any benefits such as health insurance workers'
>compensation, or retirement."
>
>The report says that Exmark uses prison labor to package for other
>companies besides Microsoft: JanSport, Starbucks, US West, and Costco.
>Other companies also utilize prisoners for jobs, including Redwood
>Outdoors, A&I Manufacturing, and Elliott Bay Metal Fabrication.
>
>According to the report, in 1993, the Washington legislature passed a
>bill mandating that the Washington Department of Corrections increase
>the number of prisoners employed in "Free Venture Industries" by 300
>jobs a year, with a net increase of 1,500 new prison industry jobs by
>the year 2000.
>
>Prison Legal News can be reached at 2400 NW 80th Street, Suite 148,
>Seattle, WA 98117, (407) 547-9716, or
>
>        http://www.synapse.net/~arrakis/pln/pln.html
>
>(19970117/Contact: Exmark Corp., 16920 164th Second
>Monroe, WA 98272, 360-794-6246; Waggoner Edstrom, Heidi Rothhausen,
>206-637-9097/Reported by Newsbytes News Network
>
>        http://www.newsbytes.com /MSOFTLOGO/PHOTO)
>
>      "The Pulse of the Information Age"
>           Newsbytes News Network
>         http://www.newsbytes.com
>24-hour computer, telecom and online news
>
>Copyright  Newsbytes News Network.  All rightsreserved.
> For more Newsbytes see http://www.nbnn.com.
>
>This information is passed along for non-profit research purposes only.
>
>Be PART of the solution -- People Against Racist Terror/Bx 1055/Culver
>City CA 90232-1055/310-288-5003/Order our journal: "Turning the Tide."
>
>
This information is passed along for non-profit research purposes only.

Be PART of the solution -- People Against Racist Terror/Bx 1055/Culver
City CA 90232-1055/310-288-5003/Order our journal: "Turning the Tide."



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