Dekada says it intends to join May Day rally

The Dekada Movement will be joining the “May Day” rally on May 1 and is calling on all workers in the Commonwealth—local and foreign alike—to unite and join in this celebration and call to action.

The rally will start at Fishing Base across the Kristo Rai Church in Garapan at 6pm on Friday and proceed to the American Memorial Park’s amphitheater.

“The business community and general public should also join this effort because they have common interests and the economic future of the CNMI depends on capitalizing on those common interests,” according to Dekada president Boni Sagana in a statement issued yesterday.

“May Day” is “International Workers Day” observed on May 1 each year and is recognized in most countries, although not in the United States, even though the May Day movement began in the United States. It is a day for worker solidarity and to organize for action on vital issues of importance to ordinary people.

Sagana said the 180-day delay in the implementation of federal immigration control in the CNMI has both good and bad points. He said Dekada did not oppose the extension because the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the CNMI political leadership had all failed to prepare properly for the transition to U.S. immigration. Sagana says workers now need to take a more active role. “We cannot simply wait to see what gets put in the regulations. We may wait forever and then not like whatever happens to us.”

He also questioned provisions of U.S. Public Law 110-229 that simply call for “consultation” with the CNMI governor. “Why only the governor, and why only consultation?” he asks. He pointed out that foreign workers have no say in who is elected governor of the CNMI, and that federal law even prohibits aliens from advancing their views by making donations to political campaigns.

Sagana cites exclusion of Russian and Chinese tourists from the visa waiver program as an example of why the delay in implementation was a “necessary evil” and of the federal government’s insensitivity not only to the needs of the CNMI but to the expressed intent of Congress in enacting U.S. Public Law 110-229 that it not be economically damaging to the CNMI.

The complete absence of a defined framework for implementation of the transition was another reason delay was unavoidable. On the other hand, every day of delay in making the transition is another day delaying the economic recovery of the CNMI, he said. “Our economy cannot move forward while this is hanging in the air.”

Delay, according to Sagana, also means the perpetuations of injustice and the continuation of a dysfunctional system that actually is in no one’s interest. Sagana says the CNMI labor and immigration system artificially divides local and alien labor. By setting worker interests against each other, the system increase the political power of business interests and diminishes that of working people, local and foreign alike.

“Ultimately this flawed system disserves business and the economy as well, by increasing costs and imposing a hidebound bureaucratic system that impedes the free flow of labor, throwing up obstacles between employer and worker, impairing freedom of contract, and undermining efficiency and adaptability to market conditions,” Sagana said, adding the CNMI needs to stabilize its existing foreign workforce, protect families and children, provide equality of treatment of local and foreign workers, and thereby provide benefits to business and workers alike.

Dekada’s participation in the “May Day” rally is intended to help lay a foundation for rebuilding the CNMI economy, Sagana said.

“Congress needs to amend U.S. Public Law 110-229,” he said, “and we need to tell them exactly how.”

Workers also should have a “place at the table” and active participation in the process of development and drafting the transition regulations, not merely an opportunity to comment after it is all done.

“Morally, the U.S. government ought to make this possible,” he said. [B][I](PR)[/I][/B]