May Day rally set for improved immigration status

The United Workers Movement-NMI will lead a May Day rally to press the federal government to grant improved immigration status and a pathway to citizenship for foreign workers, immediate relatives of U.S. and Federated States of Micronesia citizens, and CNMI permanent residents.

May Day, which occurs on May 1, is synonymous with International Workers’ Day or Labor Day, which celebrates the social and economic achievements of the labor movement.

Rabby Syed, president of the United Workers Movement-NMI, yesterday said rally participants will meet at the Garapan Fishing Base across the road from Kristo Rai Church at 6pm, followed by a march to the American Memorial Park.

“As workers, we must recognize and commemorate May Day not only for its historical significance but also as a time to organize about issues of vital importance to the working class, the people of today, in the CNMI,” he said.

Syed said the purpose of holding the rally is to ask the federal government to grant a “permanent status for nonresidents, a pathway to citizenship to be included in the federal guest worker program, and a just transitional period that considers the circumstances and needs of the huge population of nonresidents.”

“I am inviting everyone to participate, especially guest workers, IRs, FSM residents, CNMI permanent residents, U.S. citizen children of foreign parents and supporters of a just federal transition and guest worker program,” Syed added.

Ronnie Doca, board chairman of the United Workers Movement-NMI, said the group is taking advantage of the 180-day delay in the start of transition to federal immigration system to ask the federal government to look into the plight of nonresidents in the CNMI.

Besides the United Workers Movement-NMI, other groups participating in the May 1 rally are the Pilipino Contract Workers Association or Pilcowa and the Human Dignity Movement, along with Filipinos, Chinese, Koreans, Nepalese, Bangladeshis and other nonresidents in the CNMI.

An organizational meeting will be held at the Kilili Pavilion in Susupe on April 25, Saturday, at 6:30pm. Syed said they welcome donations of materials or supply for the rally. He can be reached at 989-3306.

No consultation

The United Workers Movement-NMI is also taking issue with deputy labor secretary Cinta M. Kaipat’s statement in the newspaper about the Department of Labor trying hard to work with the foreign worker groups and their representatives to minimize adverse impacts on workers and on the community.

Syed said the United Workers Movement-NMI and leaders of other guest workers’ groups want to know the workers groups that Kaipat has been trying to work with.

“The Department of Labor or Ms. Kaipat has not contacted us or talked to us…No consultation with us,” said Doca, who is also president of the Pilipino Contract Workers Association or Pilcowa.

In a statement, the United Workers Movement-NMI said the Fitial administration “cannot promote the best interest of the nonresident workers in the CNMI without the participation of the guest workers group.”

Earlier, the group said it will also ask the federal and local government to consider giving amnesty to overstayers who have not been paid their wages and other claims despite the awards granted them by the CNMI Department of Labor.