About a six weeks ago, in the middle of the Tour de France, I posted a story about Greg LeMond and his legal woes with Trek Bicycles. The two have sued one another over implications that each has done things to harm the others business. Trek accuses LeMond of damaging the sales of his line of bikes, which they build, because of his outspoken criticism of Lance Armstrong and the state of cycling in general. LeMond says Trek is in breach of contract since they down played his line of bikes to more fully support and promote Armstrong.
Well, just when you thought it couldn’t get any stranger, along comes this story from BicycleRetailer.com which says the following, and I quote directly from the article:
In an odd twist, an inmate at a federal prison in Williamsburg, South Carolina filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit in July, alleging that he and other inmates produce bikes for LeMond under the Federal Prison Industry Unicor Program for 12 cents an hour, a violation of minimum wage laws. The inmate also claimed LeMond bicycle are shipped to Iranian troops for training purposes, violating the “Training with Enemy” Act.
One word. “Wow!” So now we’ve got labor laws possibly involved and who knew that LeMond Bicycles were a threat to national security?!? Crazy stuff. This case is now expected to drag on into 2010, which is when the contract between LeMond and Trek was scheduled to expire anyway. You can’t make this stuff up folks! (On a side note, in the image I used for this post, LeMond looks as shocked as everyone else to hear this news! And is that Gary Busey standing behind him?)
Thanks to The Goat Blog over at Backcountry.com for the heads up on this.
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Seriously…are we going to trust a prisoner? I find this information hard to believe. I am not saying it isn’t true, just hard to believe. For one-I am sure the United States government is fully aware of what is being sent to Iran from here–especially being from a Prison. I am also pretty sure that prisoner wage laws do not fall under the Minimum Wage act. A minimum wage is enacted for those that can not live on their wages–prisoners would be excluded, as they are being taken care of by the state through food, boarding, medical attention etc. Prisoners live better than 20% of the population. Sad, but true. If prisoners want to be paid Minimum wage, we should charge them at least that for state and federal services rendered—making the thought void.
Damn-
Am I sounding like John McCain?
Yeah, I wouldn’t think the government would enter into a contract with Trek that didn’t meet all the necessary specifications.
Selling them to Iran is probably fine, I doubt they’re really aiding the soldiers all that much, and it’s not like we’re at war with Iran. (Yet!)
I don’t think that’s busey, but the resemblance is uncanny. I dunno, but maybe you can make your decisions from the resource I used, some gotvmail viral videos he made.
http://www.youtube.com/garybuseyonbusiness
LOL! Yeah, I know it’s not him, but it looks like it could be a young a Busey standing back there.
Spam, spam, spam, spam…
Seriously… people should e-mail their local bike shop and request them to drop LeMond’s bike line or they’ll boycott shops that carry his brand. He is such a sad former champion and really a disgrace to the support. He needs to get over his envy/hate of Armstrong and just move on.
Yeah, he does have an odd fascination with Lance, that’s for sure. Today he showed up at Lance’s press conference and grilled him about his return and his plans for releasing his independent doping tests.
That’s Austin Murphy, a writer for Sports Illustrated, standing behind Greg. In a damning article that came out right before From Lance to Landis was released, Murphy, mockingly rips into Pharmstrong, referring to him as 12 Cylinder Man, after Pharmstrong told him that some people are born with 12 Cylinders. 12 Cylinders is the reason Pharmstrong said he was able to dominate the peloton for 7 years, including all the dopers.
Interesting, but why exclude the last line from that excerpt? It's surely very relevant..
In an odd twist, an inmate at a federal prison in Williamsburg, South Carolina filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit in July, alleging that he and other inmates produce bikes for LeMond under the Federal Prison Industry Unicor Program for 12 cents an hour, a violation of minimum wage laws. The inmate also claimed LeMond bicycle are shipped to Iranian troops for training purposes, violating the “Training with Enemy” Act.
The judge denied the motion.
If the motion was denied, it at least suggests that there could have been untruths about that. I agree that the information is good to get out there, but leaving the last line out is kinda missing something important.