{"id":2036,"date":"2011-05-13T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-13T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/cheap-prison-labor-used-to-build-us-military-weapons.html"},"modified":"2011-05-13T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-05-13T13:00:00","slug":"cheap-prison-labor-used-to-build-us-military-weapons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/cheap-prison-labor-used-to-build-us-military-weapons.html","title":{"rendered":"Cheap prison labor used to build U.S. military weapons?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/a>\nDestroy local labor while building weapons to destroy foreign enemies!\n

\nMike Elk wrote for Alternet 28 April 2011,\n\nDefense Contractors Using Prison Labor to Build High-Tech Weapons Systems<\/a>\n

\nIt is a little known fact of the attack on Libya that some of the\ncomponents of the cruise missiles being launched into the country\nmayl have been made by prisoners in the United States. According to\nits website, UNICOR, which is the organization that represents Federal\nPrison Industries, \u201csupplies numerous electronic components and service\nfor guided missiles, including the Patriot Advanced Capability Missile\n(PAC-3)\u201d.\n

\nIn addition to constructing electronic components for missiles, prison\nlabor in the United States is used to make electronic cables for defense\nitems like \u201cthe McDonnell Douglas\/Boeing (BA) F-15, the General\nDynamics\/Lockheed Martin F-16, Bell\/Textron\u2019s (TXT) Cobra helicopter,\nas well as electro-optical equipment for the BAE Systems\u201d.\n

\nTraditionally these types of defense jobs would have gone to highly paid,\nunionized workers. However the prison workers building parts for these\nmissiles earn a starting wage of 23 cents an hour and can only make a\nmaximum of $1.15 an hour.\n<\/blockquote>\nMaybe you’re out of a job.\nCan you compete with 23 cents an hour?\n

\nMore detail in\n\nNoah Schactman’s Danger Room story<\/a>\n

\nAnd Justin Rohrich, who apparently broke the story,\n\nsays Lockheed Martin demanded a correction<\/a>\nbecause they claim:\n\n\n

\n\n<\/a>\nWe have been in contact with the U.S. Army Aviation & Missile Command\nLower Tier Project Office, who is responsible for the Patriot missile\nprogram, and have received confirmation that absolutely no part or\ncomponent produced by Unicor is being or has ever been used in the PAC-3\nMissile, of which Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor.\n

\nThe U.S. Army Lower Tier Project Office has made an official, written\nrequest of Unicor to remove all references to the PAC-3 Missile from\nits Web site as soon as possible.\n

\nWe respectfully request that a correction to your story be made\nimmediately that clearly states that no component or part from Unicor has\nbeen or is being used in the production or repair of the PAC-3 Missiles,\nand that you expunge all references in the story to Lockheed Martin and\nthe PAC-3 Missile.\n<\/blockquote>\nRohrich asks for someone to explain the widespread bragging about\nPAC-3 missiles in Unicor’s marketing materials.\n

\nA private prison in Lowndes County might not hire out prisoners\nto make PAC-3 missiles, but in what other ways would its prisoners compete\nwith local labor?\n

\n-jsq\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Destroy local labor while building weapons to destroy foreign enemies! Mike Elk wrote for Alternet 28 April 2011, Defense Contractors Using Prison Labor to Build High-Tech Weapons Systems It is a little known fact of the attack on Libya that some of the components of the cruise missiles being launched into the country mayl have […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1113,40,14,2,72,178],"tags":[8817,1522,8701,8730,1897,7,4578,4577,75,3215,8749],"class_list":["post-2036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cca","category-community","category-economy","category-government","category-incarceration","category-vlcia","tag-cca","tag-competition","tag-georgia","tag-incarceration","tag-labor","tag-lowndes-county","tag-missile","tag-pac-3","tag-prison","tag-unicor","tag-vlcia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-wQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}