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Cumberland Times-NewsJail jobs impact(Continued From Page 1A)Federal Prison Industries, FPI or UNICOR, is Morin’s enemy.He believes it could be his Waterloo if some type of restrictions are not put into place against FPI that would allow small businesses to operate without having to worry about losing jobs to this program.FPI handles work strictly for federal agencies and Morin’s container business is about 75 percent federal.“I’m looking more and more at trying to obtain other commercial customers that are not federally funded,” he said.Morin said his plant is not affected at this time, however, he believes that the FPI program could strike in the future and would not only result in a loss of customers, but employees couldlose their jobs.He said he has no problem with the idea of keeping inmates busy and having them learn a trade, but he is totally against the idea of having a federal program that competes against private industry, especially the small businesses, and is doing it successfully.Morin said that FPI is not competing “on a level field.” He said no industry can compete when inmates are being paid an average of 66 cents an hour. “They can bid lower than anyone else on federal contracts simply because of the labor costs,” Morin said.Other businesses have also spoken out against FPI, according to information provided byMorin.In testimony before the House Small Business Committee in June, James Riley, president and co-owner of Omni International of Vernon, Ala., claimed that FPI had taken various actions without board approval.Riley testified that an FPI “white paper” published in January showed that FPI broke the law by increasing production in 1992 and 1993 from $10 million to $24 million without prior boardapproval.Judith A. Roussel, associate administrator of the Office of Government contracting in Washington, D.C., voiced her concerns about FPI in a letter to Joseph M. Aragon, chairman of FPI’s boardof directors.She said, “We recognize that FPI has a challenging and legitimate mandate to provide inmates with training and job skills that will hopefully lead to rehabilitation upon release.“However, I am sure you will agree that the right of small businesses to compete in the federal marketplace is equally legitimate. Accordingly, I am sure that you share our belief that the commendable goal of rehabilitating inmates should not be met at the expense of our nation’s small business community.”Meanwhile, Morin continues striving to attract more business to his Garrett County plant, and, at the same time, stave off Federal Prison Industries.“I’ve been in business here for five years,” he said. “I’d like to be here five more.”
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Cumberland Times News
Cumberland, Maryland, US
Sat, Nov 16, 1996
Page 10
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