Work rewarded, workers respected

Official Labor Day celebration on the first Monday of September in the United States is more than a century old. Legislated by Congress, President Grover Cleveland in 1894 signed it into law. The rest of the world observes Labor Day on the first day of May. In 1889, the First Congress of the Second Socialist International meeting in Paris selected May First as a day for international celebration of the working man, no matter what day of the week it fell on. May 1 commemorated a riot/massacre in Chicago in 1886 where demonstrators were shot and labor leaders were jailed. Leaders of the U.S. market economy avoided being identified with the forces of command economy of the Socialists.

Historically, May 1 is observed unilaterally by workers in the private sector, while the September holiday in the United States is recognized by all, promoting the understanding in the U.S. that labor and management needed to work together. In the CNMI, Labor Day focuses on government employees. The government is the biggest employer of record. The reality of labor, the productive (as opposed to the regulatory and developmental) working class in the private sector, is something else altogether.

A colleague in Guam moved back to his island of birth Saipan in the ’80s. He contemplated entering elected office in 1989. He tracked me down through the U.S. Peace Corps office in Manila, and asked that I join him in launching his political career. Though I had lived in the Marshall Islands and Guam previously, that year was my first trip to the NMI.

He dangled a carrot. “There is money to be made here,” he said. I could move to Saipan to run a labor recruitment office. The supply from Southeast Asia is unlimited and the local market demand is guaranteed. I would prosper. His political career would be moved along, as well. It was very tempting, but the working and living conditions of laborers in the Commonwealth were appalling. I declined the offer.

When the Hawaii United Methodist Church asked me to move to Saipan 10 years later, I did not hesitate. My ex-clergy father questioned my sanity since I had just joined Mayor Jeremy Harris’ workforce development office as a planner, became a member of the powerful government employees union, and was set to coast into the Pacific sunset of my years. Besides, protestant clergy traditional lifestyle was, at best, a humiliating, poverty level mendicancy.

On the Economic Community, the UMC says: “We support the right of public and private (including farm, government, institutional, and domestic) employees and employers to organize for collective bargaining into unions and other groups of their own choosing. Further, we support the right of both parties to protection in so doing and their responsibility to bargain in good faith within the framework of the public interest.” There was a clear mission to be pursued in empowering workers in the Commonwealth.

Upright members of the local congregation, along with many devout Christians on island, employed live-in maids who labored more than 10 hours a day, six days a week, for a pittance. They did not lose any sleep over it. They defended it as a right afforded them by law. No evident moral qualms.

A member urged me to join the Chamber of Commerce. I did. Workers’ rights was not a conversation topic over lunch. Minimum wage talk was avoided, and when mentioned, ardent pursuit of the subject was frowned upon. Mention of labor unions was a definite “No! No!” Previous and current litigation threatened the fragile status quo. Organized labor was best served by letting them voluntarily pick up trash on the pathways! Employers pay for the t-shirt and lunch.

Meanwhile, all around the Commonwealth, there were professionals earning $3.05 an hour. A widespread sentiment was: “They can always leave anytime.” It did not bother most of the native labor force that good jobs in the private sector were not forthcoming. There was always a dependable kin who would make a government job easy for the taking. Labor was cheap and abundant for the private sector. Uncle Sam had ample dole for the natives.

The travails of Maid in Saipan (and farmers) did not improve with the Made in USA manufacturing sector. It did not take long before the church extended sanctuary services to contract workers. Clearly, the allure of working in the USA was extensively misused in personnel recruitment, extracting payments from the hopeful and gullible for the privilege of coming to work for three years in Uncle Sam’s domain. Admittedly, we dealt only with those who sought succor, or were referred to us by law offices. I am sure there were those who were satisfied with the existing arrangements, but there was enough representational work to get us thrown out of public offices for arduously pursuing the rights of those we served.

Economics is one of four pillars in Social Studies in the CNMI. Economics is about resources, production and distribution. Resources are natural, human and technological. Production is about instruments, forces and systems. Distribution is about property claims, exchange mechanisms and consumption plans. The human factor is a critical component of the economic process. A misused labor force does not enhance production; an indifferent society becomes reckless consumers when oblivious to the welfare of labor. Neither is served well by a shortsighted exploitation of cheap and captive workforce.

Teachers constitute a generally enlightened group. Save for an indolent few, they are also well organized nationwide. It is time for the Association of Commonwealth Teachers to assert their corporate identity and demonstrate what it means to have their work rightly compensated. They, as workers, may also sterlingly elicit the respect they deserve. Blazing the way, others will surely follow.

ACT 100, please step forward to be recognized!

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Vergara is a Social Studies 6th grade teacher at San Vicente Elementary School