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‘We are looking at long-term solution’
H.R. 339 may have added only 350 slots for foreign workers when it passed the U.S. Senate but it gives a temporary answer to the CW-1 issue in the CNMI until it becomes law. Moreover, the Saipan Chamber of Commerce remains focused on providing a long-term solution to the issue.
In a statement by the Chamber, it said that H.R. 339 has been instrumental “in increasing awareness of our islands’ plight as we lose long-time workers [but] the Chamber is focusing on our participation in efforts to provide a long- term fix.”
The Chamber statement repeated a call for all local- businesses to participate in the data collection project that will document the efforts that have been made to recruit and hire U.S. eligible workers, for submission to Congress.
The data collection is an ongoing effort to show that the CNMI is doing its best to hire U.S. workers, to justify continuing the CW program.
At a meeting last week, Chamber president Velma Palacios said the U.S. Senate has the impression that CNMI has made little effort to recruit non CW-1 workers, “which is not true.”
“This data will be forwarded to…the U.S. Congress to provide factual data regarding the earnest efforts to employ U.S. workers on our island,” said Chamber executive director Jill Arenovski.
In June this year, the Chamber showed its support to the Northern Marianas Business Alliance that was organized to help the CNMI government convince Congress to extend the CW-1 program.
The NMBAC hired a lobbyist in Washington D.C. to push H.R. 339 and provisions that the CNMI government and businesses need to be able to sustain the economic growth of the CNMI.
