Shirley’s down to 2 cooks
About half of Shirley’s Coffee Shop’s employees were affected by the Commonwealth-only permit delays, with only two cooks at the helm, forcing the closure of the restaurant’s Susupe location. (Daisy Demapan)
About half of Shirley’s Coffee Shop’s employees were affected by the Commonwealth-only permit delays, an eye-opening reality that has brought panic to employers since the Dec. 31, 2015, expiration.
The family restaurant in Susupe, a popular staple in the community for its American, Filipino, and Chamorro cuisine, closed its doors this week, worsening the crises of service-oriented businesses that rely on additional CW support for continued operations.
According to restaurant manager Noelle Macario, the restaurants employ a total of 50 employees for their dining and kitchen areas for their Garapan and Susupe branches.
She says their Susupe location has closed shop indefinitely until CW delays are resolved.
Right now, they have focused their efforts on keeping the high traffic Garapan location open for business.
“What we are trying to do is keep this one location open. Although most of the 25 who aren’t working are dining staff, it’s the kitchen that is in trouble right now because we only have four people,” she said.
Macario said the four employees who are currently at the helm of the restaurant’s operations are two main cooks and two helpers and dishwashers.
She said the Garapan location, which is normally a 24-hour restaurant operation, is also experiencing setbacks. It is currently operating from 6am to 10pm at night until further notice.
“We are trying to make do with what we have by adjusting their schedules because Garapan is 24 hours so we are putting it down to 16 hours so [the cooks] can get some rest,” she said.
Yesterday, she said, some dining staff’s work permits were renewed but this has not alleviated the pressure on kitchen operations.
Macario says all 25 CW renewal applications were submitted in October, fulfilling the 90-day timeframe recommended by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service but she is still waiting on updates for their remaining 20 CW employees.
She said that USCIS has not issued them any requests for evidence.
“We’re just hoping that our customers are understanding because we are understaffed and it’s slower than usual,” she said.
I noticed , and may be some of you others did likewise that the article does not mention if this establishment is taking steps to hire locals to replace their cw-1 workers, or is the way to resolve the dilemma is to just close the business and fain hardship, like this business couldn’t have forseen the issues as related to hiring cw-1 workers for these jobs? what i have come to appreciate is the locals love of cooking, so why can’t this business train a local to prepare items from their menu? Does the cw-1 worker possess some type of food magic, that no others can produce?
Another lame attempt to get a CW extension for cheap employees. Pretending that only CWs can do the specialized work of fry cook.
It is not all about the ability of someone to cook or execute a work. But the diligence , hard work , cleanliness , the always present ( no matter how drunk you were the previous night , or how many parties you have attended the previous day ) but , the I still need to be at work in time attitude , is all or most of them “employers” are up to in a worker. I’ve been in the island for almost a decade now , and never seen a local worker that lasts 5 years in 1 job, most of them are picky and lazy , and they have this ” because I am a local , I have the right to be bossy attitude at work “.
at the end of the day, we must give locals the benefit of the doubt or that mentality will carry on for generations. yes some locals give work ethic a bad name as i have witness first hand, but there are several others that make this statement false. We must change the way we think in order for us to change the way we live.
I agree with you there , and I apologize for the outburst! PEACE!
There are lots of local cooks working in the U.S. because the pay, treatment and benefits are better. They’re hard workers, but they don’t want to come back to Saipan for a wide variety of reasons. Maybe in the U.S., yeah the life is harder but at least they don have to worry bout impressin no one like here in Saipan. Gotta put on a show everyday for the peeps.
A lot of the good local cooks work in the U.S. because the pay and benefits are better. And it’s more fun in the U.S. They can be anyone they want, don gotta follow all da rules here in Saiipan.