27 Jul 2009

Surge in signatures for American Samoa's wage petition

7:14 pm on 27 July 2009

There's been a last minute jump in the number of local residents in American Samoa who signed the minimum wage reversal petition.

The petition calls on President Barack Obama to intervene to reverse the minimum wage increase mandated by a 2007 federal law.

The Chamber of Commerce says many of the signatures were collected late last week thanks to the efforts of village mayors, who visited homes in their respective counties.

The Chamber president, David Robinson, says the preliminary tally was just over 12,000 signatures.

Mr Robinson is still disappointed over the lack of private sector support for the petition, which will be presented later this week by Governor Togiola Tulafono to Mr Obama during a White House meeting.