Focus, please, on the issue at hand

Recently, a well-read former co-employee of a past CNMI administration commented that I must feel vindicated that what I have been alerting many to was finally becoming a reality.

Garment factories, as a result of competition in their market place, and to a lesser extent, recent changes in access to that marketplace defined a decade ago, are now downsizing, no longer profitable and on the verge of resituating to more advantageous locations in Asia.

I told my friend and former colleague that I actually had a miserable bittersweet feeling the same way I felt when I was told by some business partners at government and business forums that, had the same industry’s manufacturers heeded my advice and urging to create an industry-wide set of workplace standards on laws, rights and practices 10 years ago, we would likely never have had the class action lawsuits.

The fact of the matter is that these factories are going to leave unless someone does something in a hurry. This industry is not like the tourism industry. The sun will continue to shine, the beaches aren’t going anywhere and the proximity of Japan to Saipan, Tinian and Rota will continue this industry to the extent we don’t harm our lagoons, destroy tourists’ trust, or ruin relations with the outside world we depend upon.

With the garment industry, it’s not going to have a chance of staying unless we change things that placed it in the economic position it is in with its competitors all over the globe.

It’s different now. We should be different now.

My purpose, my occupation, my preoccupation and literally my obsession have all been altered because of the urgency that’s before this island, its economy and its accumulated three-decade rise in the standard of living brought by a self-sustaining economy from tourism and the garment industry.

The CNMI administration has tasked itself, and me. This is tremendously complicated work. Let’s see if everyone can put all things peripheral aside.

What we are saving from loss in the CNMI is somewhere close to 22,000 jobs.

Nearly 7,000 of these jobs are in service companies, shipping companies, insurance companies, retail businesses, telecommunication companies, hotels, restaurants, grocery stores, landlords with office buildings and warehouses, banks, newspapers and maybe 600-800 CNMI government jobs in Customs, Labor, Immigration, Commerce, Finance, Public Safety, Public Works, OPM, DEQ, Ports Authority, CUC and every other office that stands to lose someone because the CNMI stands ready to lose $70 million in revenue and another $70 million in local spending.

I will be right again. I will be right if we do nothing, and I will be right if we do everything.

I have absolutely no time, energy, or patience for anyone who does not take this seriously that could ultimately affect the people that hold these 22,000 jobs in the CNMI.

Richard A. Pierce
SGMA Executive Director