North’s plan of action on federalization

NOTE: The following is a plan of action prepared by former OIA employee David North in the form of a memorandum to his colleagues at Interior dated April 19, 1998. It confirms my long held suspicion of OIA’s association with labor unions ever determined to kick dirt on our innocent faces, a total waste of US mainland taxpayers’ money.

“Here are some thoughts on increasing federal enforcement in the CNMI:

A. Objectives of such activity.

1. It is a good idea, anyway.

2. We show Sen. Murkowski that we pay attention to what he is saying at this point.

3. We probably find that the activity shows that more federal jurisdiction is needed, as we have been saying.

4. We probably find, yet again, strong indications of the lack of will/ability of the CNMI government to bring real reform.

5. We probably find further evidence that a worker advocacy office is needed on Saipan.

6. We expose major officials in other departments to what is going on there, and we create some useful allies in useful places. (It might be very helpful to have Jonathan Schwartz visit the island, for example).

7. We might use the event–Enforcement Month in the Marianas–as a press event. We have found it useful in all but one case to have people go there for the first time (Channel One being the one apparent, partial exception). We are certain to find plenty problems to show to any press that comes along.

8. We might use the activity to enlist additional private sector allies. Perhaps some non-government types could talk with some workers, and see some (grim) sights even before the feds arrive; we could suggest, maybe (?) even help fund in some cases, visits by UNITE, by the number two or three person at AFL-CIO, by ranking person in an appropriate maritime union (on the Jones Act exemption), by someone from ATMI, or by an articulate academic or two. Maybe by Jimmy Carter, or our own Vice President.

9. It may be that the results of all this activity could encourage appropriation for more funds for CNMI enforcement.

B. Timing and Planning

As to timing, it probably would not be a good idea to fill the hotels with feds for three weeks, say, and then go away, in many cases, never to return. Another question is surprise; there must be some instances in which an unannounced arrival is better than an expected one.

The timing vis-a-vis Congressional hearings and mark-ups obviously is crucial.

We also should not be in a situation in which CNMI people can argue that we are ganging up on them unfairly, arranging multiple agency visits to a single facility on a single day.

There should be some high-level planning, so that we can reach the objectives we want, figure out how one set of investigators tips off the next set (from another agency); there presumably should be high-level briefings within each agency, with OIA present, after the teams come back from the CNMI.

Guam-and-Honolulu-based feds, to the extent that they exist, who may have to do the follow-up, should be included in the planning and implementation. And, of course, so should the existing handful on Saipan.

C. Substance

One of our major problems is the huge set of holes in federal jurisdiction. We do not do the usual state-level law enforcement and regulating, nor immigration, nor normal customs work, etc. Many entities (such as financial institutions) that would be federally regulated in most of the 50 states, are not in the CNMI.

We will want to use the White House meeting to encourage:

1. more activity by those already there (much more in the case of Justice and Customs.

2. first-time activity on the part of the IRS, and perhaps some of the independent agencies (EEOC, FTC, and others not yet imagined;and

3. program-and-fiscal auditing by federal grant-making agencies, most of which regard the CNMI, and the other islands, as too minor for serious concern. They might find, for example, some pretty clear examples of mis-use of federal funds and (maybe) unlawful discrimination against the contract workers.

Some Specifics

IRS: The wage-hour people are pretty sure that the established garment factories are probably paying FICA, but maybe some of the marginal ones are not. That could be quickly established.

IRS may be able to do something about an aspect of the workers-get-judgments-but-no-cash situation, which I think the senator talked about. If an employer is not paying a worker, and this has been established by the CNMI DOLI, it is easy to move on from there to prove debts to, and non-payment of FICA. Non-payment of FICA can lead to establishments being closed, and to the pursuit of whoever signed the checks that bounded. IRS would need heavy encouragement to follow-up on this sort of thing, as it tends to pay attention to the amount of bucks collected per hour of revenue agent time, not the use of the agency to meet other social goals.

EEOC and the Civil Rights Division. Danny knows more about this than I do, but I suspect that a lot of things that happen to the workers is against various civil rights and EEOC laws; it would be good to get feds who worry about these things to take a look at the CNMI. We know, for example, that coerced abortions are, among other things, a Title VII violation, subject to civil suit; maybe there are criminal violations in this general neighborhood as well.

FTC or maybe the Postal Inspectors. We know that people are bamboozled overseas about the glories of working in the CNMI; maybe this is against some kind of federal law dealing with misleading advertising. It would be useful to have someone look into this.

The Grant Programs. I suspect that having agency IGs, and program people look at what happens to health, training, food, and construction programs once they get into the hands of the CNMI government would be eye-opening. They should be encouraged to go to the Marianas with their eyes open, looking for things that need to be corrected publicly, not swept under the rug. OIA’s finance people could supply all the needed technical assistance to the feds going to the CNMI for the first time.

WIC. The Women, Infants, and children (WIC) program is alive and well on Saipan. By federal decision, it does not ask about legal or illegal alien status of the potential beneficiaries. It is run through local governments. So it should be reaching pregnant garment workers.

WIC should be asked to find out how many Chinese garment workers use the program, and then, assuming a minimal or zero response, why that number is so low. CNMI is small enough so that a WIC staffer, from the Department of Agriculture, could simply check the active cases list of Chinese names, if no other data are available on this variable. This would show, from yet another CNMI date source, that something very odd is happening to births to the Chinese garment workers.

Strictly a personal view. John S. DelRosario Jr. is publisher of Saipan Tribune.