Human being, Part 2

I thought I was wrong in my convictions when I publicly expressed my sympathy to my fellow utility workers who had been forced to stop working due to the legislations that prohibited them from working at CUC. More than 10 years of continued service and dedication to maintain the effectiveness and efficiency of power generators that supplies power to the island, only to find out a day or two later that they were jobless, without regard for what they’ve been through for the past 10 years of lifting heavy and oily engine parts, sweating in hot temperature, absorbing noise above the maximum average level per workplace at 85 dB emanating from a huge engine a few meters apart and working between running engines. These are in addition to the potential energy within pressurized pipelines attached to an energized engine that poses a danger (if mishandled) of killing workers should there be an explosion.

If a local law prohibited them from continuing their services with CUC, therefore the problem is not with CUC management alone. The existing laws played a vital role in our power crisis nowadays and the ones who passed them could be deemed as the mastermind of engine breakdowns and power failures if indeed the CUC problem arose from the legislative orders prohibiting alien workers from working at CUC beyond Sept. 30, 2007. Those alien workers are now among the hundreds or thousands of displaced foreign workers in the island seeking for employment.

CUC officials have pronounced that the manpower shortage at the power plant has affected staff morale to the point of exhaustion and I for one, affirm that exhaustion (be it human or machine) could trigger an unintentional mistake and unavoidable neglect to the point that the engine might be in a very serious condition leading to an eventual breakdown.

Rain or shine or even if we are about to sleep, about to eat or rest, if we are called to attend to a troubled engine, we could not say no due to our social and mandatory obligations to maintain effectiveness and efficiency in the plant operation. We expose ourselves daily to extremely dangerous and hazardous workplaces and yet they treat us like commodities that expire whenever they want to. Some of our friends thought that we are way above any other technical people in terms of salary on the island because we are employed in a dangerous and highly technical engineering job. I am sorry to say that that is just gossip…and untrue. What is true is that maintaining an exhausted engine and over-fatigued personnel (due to overwork) could trigger mistakes and may cause explosion (as they say it in the report) anytime in any power plant operation. That makes us very, very vulnerable in an accident that could hurt or even kill a utility worker but this will likely not happen in a well-maintained, well-managed facility that is manned by a highly trained technical and dedicated staff.

Now, once again, the law has been amended to allow CUC to hire alien workers to address the severe manpower shortage at its power generation division. Is it humane to re-hire alien workers (again) to fix the troubled engine and after two years, they will find themselves jobless again come 2010? According to the news report dated Aug. 19, 2008, “CUC workers suffer from low morale—the action of terminating the services of nonresident staff did not do any good for CUC or Saipan’s consumers.” I understand that the lawmakers are just doing their job to protect the interest of the local workforce but did they do it right at CUC? Who makes us suffer now from the frequent power outages? Is it the displaced alien workers at CUC? Is it the management running the utility or is it the lawmakers who made the law that prohibited alien workers from working at CUC?

The law on primary job preference (Section 4521 of P.L. 15-108) states that: “Citizens and permanent residents shall be given a primary preference for employment in the Commonwealth. This requirement underlies all regulations with respect to the hiring, renewal, replacement, and termination of employees. An important part of the implementation of the primary job preference is emphasis on jobs and occupations for which citizens and permanent residents are or can be qualified and which should be attractive to them. A Jobs Study by the Office of Public Auditor in 2006 and 2007 provided useful observations and conclusions in these regards.”

I’ve said it before and I will say it again: “can be qualified” is not acceptable in any a highly technical industry. This preference cannot be applied in a power generation industry. There should be a clause preference referring to these rules. “Attractive to them” but lacking of training and exposure to the job is also unacceptable. If this primary job preference is the basis for not renewing alien workers from their employment at CUC, no wonder we are suffering now from severe power outage.

“Section 4434(e)(i) of the Nonresidents Workers Act states that “the director of labor shall not approve nonresident workers certificates for specific job classifications” but the utility workers are excluded in that specific job classification and even then those specific job classification were already declared unconstitutional.

With all due respect, I am appealing to the lawmakers in behalf of the alien workers at CUC to provide them the needed parts and equipments for a reliable power service in the future because we, as power plant workers, believe that those engines at Lower Base could be repaired back to its plate-load capacity ratings. A power generations specialist in the island once said, “You can only retire a diesel engine only in obsolency,” meaning no more replacements parts are available.