A group of long-staying nonresident workers in the CNMI plans to hold a rally on Saipan next year when the U.S. Congress convenes, in support of a Democratic Party bill implementing a gradual minimum wage hike and federal immigration in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are scheduling our members and non-members\u2019 meeting within two weeks to plan a mass rally when the U.S. Congress convenes on January 5, 2007, [in support] of H.R. 5550,\u201d said Dekada in a statement issued yesterday.<\/p>\n
Dekada president Boni Sagana said yesterday the rally would be held near the Horiguchi Building on Beach Road, Garapan. The building houses several federal government agencies.<\/p>\n
H.R. 5550 refers to a bill introduced earlier this year by Democrat congressman George Miller, which aims to gradually implement the federal minimum wage in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
The bill, which was co-authored by incoming U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also seeks the implementation of federal immigration control over the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n
CNMI government and business leaders believe that this bill would be re-introduced when the Democratic-controlled Congress convenes next month.<\/p>\n
Miller, a longtime critic of the CNMI labor and immigration policies, had repeatedly pushed for such a measure in the past.<\/p>\n
Dekada\u2019s latest plan came following a move in the local House of Representative to pass a bill, House Bill 15-167, requiring nonresident workers in the CNMI to exit before re-employment.<\/p>\n
Dekada said it has been engaging the CNMI government for \u201ca local solution\u201d to the issue of improved status for long-term guest workers, to no avail.<\/p>\n
Sagana said that minimum federalization would not be a threat if long-staying nonresidents had political rights or a \u201cvoice in the laws that govern them and the rest of the CNMI.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDekada\u2019s proposal [improved immigration status or permanent residency in the CNMI] not only would have addressed this important human rights issue but would have been economically beneficial for the CNMI government as well,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, the CNMI political leadership has failed to respond. There\u2019s not even a bill introduced in the Legislature yet. Instead, they re-introduced H.B. 15-167 that requires alien workers to exit CNMI periodically prior to re-employment. <\/p>\n
\u201cAccordingly, Dekada\u2019s leadership believes it is now time for Dekada to turn its attention to Washington D.C. again,\u201d said the group.<\/p>\n
In late 2005, the group sent its legal consultant, Steven Woodruff, to Washington D.C. to seek help from the national government regarding the former\u2019s plight in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
Dekada said it intends to communicate with Democratic leaders in Congress \u201cto re-acquaint them with the goals and aspirations of Dekada members.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDekada will ask the Democrats to address [our] concerns early in the new Congress,\u201d said the group.<\/p>\n
Dekada consists of nonresident workers who have lived and worked in the CNMI for five years or more. It cited a membership of some 3,000 people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A group of long-staying nonresident workers in the CNMI plans to hold a rally on Saipan next year when the U.S. Congress convenes, in support of a Democratic Party bill implementing a gradual minimum wage hike and federal immigration in the CNMI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106705\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}