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America 2006: Importing Cheap Labor, Exporting Researchers by SusanG Wed Apr 12, 2006 at 07:21:46 PM PDT CBS visits a building site where construction of housing for officers at Trident Submarine Base is underway and finds a military subcontractor using the cheapest labor it can find: These men, most in their 20s and all born in Mexico, spoke in shadows because they are here illegally, and fear talking to the press could get them fired. Talking about the long hours and low pay -- less than half what a union member makes -- about $13 or $14 an hour. Despite dozens of arrests at military bases around the country, government construction sites continue to be fertile ground for undocumented workers, something Centex, the Texas-based conglomerate who has contracts with the federal government, was hesitant to discuss. ... "Sometimes, they check your documents," says one man. "Sometimes no. If you show up to work, they need you to work. So it's not always the case." "But, it almost doesn't matter," says another man. "Because they treat you as if you don't have any rights." Meanwhile, half a world away in Singapore: Singapore's siren song is growing increasingly more irresistible for scientists, especially stem cell researchers who feel stifled by the U.S. government's restrictions on their field. ... "I am absolutely amazed at what they have. It's just knock-dead gorgeous," said Dr. Judith Swain, a University of California, San Diego, heart researcher who will decamp to Singapore in September to run the country's new Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences at a state-funded research wonderland called Biopolis. Swain's husband, Dr. Edward Holmes, who is dean of the UCSD medical school and a ranking official with California's stem cell agency, is also going to Singapore to work as a government researcher. ... Copeland said he's leaving for Singapore because of its unfettered support of human embryonic stem cell research. In the United States, federal funding has been severely restricted by President Bush because of moral opposition to the work, which requires destroying days-old embryos. Copeland and Jenkins spurned an attractive offer to join Stanford University's stem cell department in favor of Singapore. So the government turns a blind eye to its lawbreaking subcontractors when they want to avoid paying union wages, but it's willing to let adherence to biblical edicts drive some of the best scientists in the country to other shores to build up cutting-edge, life-saving research in other economies. Unbelievable, this country we're living in now. Thanks President Bush. :: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn