The vicious anti-CNMI crusade… continues

At this very moment, a cabal of New York attorneys are scheming to, in effect, undermine our entire economy and wipe out everything we have accomplished since our Covenant agreement with the United States was first established. I am referring, of course, to the plot hatched up by some of our detractors, possibly the US labor unions, to sue the CNMI garment industry–the only industry keeping us afloat amid these horrible times of unprecedented tourism collapse and general economic malaise.

The lawsuit, which is expected to be filed in federal courts in Saipan and Los Angeles, contends that foreign garment factory workers have been badly mistreated, exploited, and “forced into ‘indentured servitude.’” These New York attorneys reportedly seek to claim as much as $1 billion in damages, for unpaid wages.

On the face of it, their case clearly has no merit. Indeed, it is note even entirely clear that the plaintiffs in this case have any standing to sue. Presumably, it was not the CNMI’s garment factory workers who contacted the New York law firm in the first place, complaining of unpaid wages.

The real players in this brutal anti-CNMI crusade have yet to be named; the New York law firm suspiciously refuses to disclose the true identities of the special interests actually being represented by this frivolous, baseless and utterly groundless lawsuit.

The charge that CNMI garment factory workers have been denied their wages, for example, is patently false. It is an outright lie. No such labor case is presently being filed in the CNMI’s courts. Our own Department of Labor and Immigration would shut down–at once–any garment factory not paying its workers. The US Labor Department presently has no wage-and-hour case against any of the CNMI’s garment factories. The US Justice Department, which is charged with enforcing federal law, also has no case against any of our garment factories. Wages are not being denied. No law, no applicable statute, is being violated.

The impending lawsuit is expected to claim that CNMI garment factory workers are victims of labor abuse and human rights violations. Yet no specific, concrete and tangible facts emerge to support their case. No significant, substantial or representative examples have been furnished. All we hear is the same, tired old accusations: labor abuse, human rights violations, ‘indentured servitude,’exploitation, and so on, etceteras. No incontrovertible facts are ever provided–and none will likely ever be supplied.

In deciding the outcome of cases, the courts have to perform essentially two functions: find the facts and apply the law. Here we have no facts, no law–and ultimately, if our detractors still prevail, no justice.