Irene Tantiado, a vocal labor activist, is stepping down from her post as president of the United Coalition of Workers, citing a desire to work independently as an advocate on behalf of workers\u2019 rights. <\/p>\n
In an interview Wednesday, Tantiado said that she had submitted her resignation to the coalition the previous day but plans to continue her work alone. <\/p>\n
\u201cI will be in a better position, I think, to help if I\u2019m my own because I will be working on an individual basis,\u201d she said. \u201cI will be able to act faster and make decisions faster.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tantiado won election to the coalition\u2019s presidency earlier this year and devoted her term to addressing issues critical to the CNMI\u2019s population of foreign workers such as the needs of foreign parents with children who have disabilities and the failure of some local insurance companies to pay workers money they are owned through surety bonds. She has formed close ties with key lawmakers and officials in the CNMI to lobby for workers\u2019 interests. <\/p>\n
A contributing factor to her resignation, she noted, was some disagreements within the coalition\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re in a group, there are a lot of differences and that was basically one of the reasons, because of that, why I wanted to leave,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In one of her last acts as the coalition\u2019s president, Tantiado yesterday sent two letters to federal officials on the pending federal takeover of local labor and immigration rules and the needs of alien worker parents whose children have disabilities. <\/p>\n
In her Aug. 5 letter to the U.S. Department of Labor, Tantiado urged its officials to begin playing a more active regulatory role in the CNMI, saying foreign workers have found themselves subject to substandard working conditions and, in some cases, abuse by their employers. <\/p>\n
Since the passage of the recently signed \u201cfederalization\u201d bill, Tantiado says local labor regulators have told workers to hold back their complaints until federal officials take control.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe earnestly ask that as the Department of Labor assumes increased responsibilities here, that the employees you assign here will be particularly sensitive to the fact that we guest workers came here to earn a living, doing jobs the local workforce could not fill,\u201d Tantiado writes. \u201cThe wages we earn are higher than in our home countries, but none of us has become wealthy working here.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a separate letter to the Department of Homeland Security, Tantiado asked officials for help for alien workers who are the parents of mentally and physically disabled children. Many of these parents, her letter notes, are facing repatriation but their children are American citizens. Local officials have said the parents cannot stay but they could leave their children behind\u2014a position most find unthinkable. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf we go back to our country, most of us are from provinces where there is no medical facility available to provide the necessary medical care that our children need,\u201d Tantiado writes. \u201cBecause of the economic condition of our own country, we might not be able to receive the same assistance from our government.\u201d<\/p>\n
Federal and local government officials could not be reached for comment on the letters at press time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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