From - Sun Mar 22 22:36:50 1998

Unicor is planning to display PRISON INDUSTRIES wares at several TRADE SHOWS across the country.

This is the opportunity we’ve been needing to let people know what’s really going on. We are going to have to pull together and work fast. We need people to get a hold of the media, someone to find out about getting permits and someone to get ahold of the Trade Unionist. Most of these shows are at Federal Facilities so we need to find out just where we would be permitted to demonstrate. We will also need people to make signs. Time is of the utmost importance but I know we can pull it off because our loved ones are depending on us.

Below is an article done on the EXPO ‘96 that Unicor presented in 1996

And just below the article is the schedule of the shows for this year.

As you will see the number of shows they are attending this year has quaddrupled.

Prison Labor Schmoozefest Assembly line: Twenty percent of the nation's convicts work for Unicor -- at what activists call slave wages.

Expo West '96 was a classic San Francisco trade show -- for the prison industry.

By Christian Parenti

WITH GRIM IRONY, Unicor -- the government agency that runs federal prison industries -- chose San Francisco's Moscone Center as the venue for "Expo West '96," held two weeks ago.

The prison-labor industry is no longer just about making license plates.

Prisoners today make stretch limousines, conduct telemarketing surveys, and enter data into computers. Convicts work with marketers and managers to maximize sales for the prison industry, and 200 of those sales genuises attended Expo West '96, to be feted and dazzled by Unicor.

According to law, Unicor can only sell products to other federal agencies. But on display were such prison-made goods as road signs, park signs, decals, mail bags, toner cartridges for copy machines, protective eyewear made to look like Miami-style sunglasses, and plenty of lightweight body armor for the Army and border-patrol agents.

"The trade show is just a chance for us to, you know, show the products, look for business just like any other company," said Unicor's Dennis Grinnioni. Unicor's business is so strong that this year it's presenting a trade show on each coast. "Normally we just do one show a year," explained another Unicor official. "Usually it's in the Midwest, somewhere like Kansas City."

But San Francisco is not Kansas City, and Expo West '96 organizers were met by 250 irate Bay Area prison activists and trade unionists who showed up to protest what they see as the "human rights violations" of Unicor and the general threat of low wages posed by prison labor.

"Oh my gosh, they're here for us," stammered a purchasing agent from the federal prosecutor's office in Omaha, Neb., as she read the crowd's picket signs. "They think we use slave labor?"

Activist Dean Tuckerman thinks so. "Prison labor is slavery, and any person, in any century, should oppose slavery." His comrades denounced convict labor through a bullhorn and burned complimentary canvas handbags given out at Unicor's registration desk.

"One of the main things driving Unicor's expansion is the nation's massive use of incarceration," said Eli Rosenblat of the Prison Resource Activist Center.

Twenty percent of the nation's 104,000 federal convicts are employed by Unicor. Moreover, the federal prison population is projected to swell to 117,000 by the end of the decade.

Security was tight inside the Moscone Center, but the registration booth was swamped by demonstrators. All nongovernment employees (including a 60 Minutes crew) wore identification badges and were chaperoned around the exhibit hall by Unicor representatives.

Unicor public-information agent Todd R. Craig glared at my name tag. "The Bay Guardian ?" he asked, his blue eyes narrowing. "You wrote that story about us last week. Steve Schwalb, our chief operating officer, would like to speak to some of the points you raised."

My tour with Steve Schwalb through the hall of prison-made goods kept getting delayed, so I ducked into a "motivational super session" titled "Attitude Is Everything" presented by Keith Harrell.

"If there's anybody that's not really into it, you send them to me!" said Harrell with a disingenuous smile and a sideways glance at two unimpressed protesters in the front row.

"Everyone is going through changes! If you're not changing you're in a rut! Dig yourself out!" shouted Harrell, feigning a shoveling motion. "Everybody's going through so many changes; downsizing, rightsizing, some of them even capsizing. I went to a company the other day that said, 'We just laid off a thousand. Can ya motivate the rest of them?' "

When we started our tour, Schwalb confirmed that Unicor provides 25 percent of the federal government's office chairs, 50 percent of the federal government's brooms and paintbrushes, 20 percent of its electrical harnesses, 20 percent of the electrical wiring used by federal contractors, and all the bulletproof vests worn by border-patrol agents.

For small-business and labor unions in the federal-supply industry, giving up 25 percent of federal government work orders for chairs is a major sacrifice. Activists also cite reports in lawsuits and letters from federal inmates alleging routine safety violations in Unicor shops.

I was drawn to the bulletproof-vest display. The irony of prisons building body armor for law enforcement doesn't seem to hit these earnest federal shoppers. A purchasing agent from the U.S. Patent Office walked by. Her shirt read: "Yes, I am black. No, I am not a criminal."

You'll find us exhibiting at the following shows.

Show Dates and Times Location

March 18, 1998 US COC Procurement Fair

McGuire AFB, NJ

March 19-20, 1998 NEOCON West

Los Angeles, CA

March 24-26, 1998 FOSE '98

Washington, DC

April 9-10, 1998 GSA/ACES Symposium

Atlanta, GA

May 12-13, 1998 Federal Facilities

Washington, DC

June 8-10, 1998 NEOCON '98

Chicago, Il.

July 6-8, 1998 GSA/FSS

Seattle, WA

August 30 - September 2, 1998 National Postal Forum

Washington, DC

Point of Contact

Mark Miller

Phone: (202) 305-3915

E-Mail: mmiller@central.unicor.gov

NEWS RELEASES

POLYMER SOLUTIONS AWARDED UNICOR CONTRACT. Estimated Revenues in Excess of $1 Million Annually. June 3, 1997. CHICO, CALIFORNIA, June 3, 1997...

Polymer...

http://www.amt-tech.com/97-08.html