CNMI Secretary of Labor Edith DeLeon Guerrero said the Section 902 talks, or discussion between the Commonwealth government and the White House, is the appropriate avenue to discuss concerns over the CNMI\u2019s foreign worker program that is set to end in 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the most appropriate vehicle to discuss the concerns on the CW transition with the federal government, which will also require the CNMI to produce the workforce evidence data that explains and\/or supports the position to extend or not beyond 2019,\u201d DeLeon Guerrero said.\u00a0\u2028\u201cThe discretionary authority given to the U.S. Secretary of Labor under U.S. Public Law 110-229 to extend the CW worker program is no longer, hence advancing the need to initiate the 902 talks,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Based on the numbers, there are not enough workers to fuel the workforce pipeline by 2019, according to DeLeon Guerrero.<\/p>\n
In her talk with Assistant Interior Secretary Esther Kia\u2019ana during the latter\u2019s visit last week, DeLeon Guerrero said they discussed gathering workforce data for pre-, during, and post-construction of the upcoming projects in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
DeLeon Guerrero said she is willing to be part of the 902 talks to be able to clearly present the data regarding the state of the Commonwealth\u2019s workforce.<\/p>\n
Discretionary authority<\/p>\n
Saipan Chamber of Commerce president Alex Sablan also met with Kia\u2019ana along with DeLeon Guerrero.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Kia\u2019ana\u2019s] going to be a strong advocate for helping us restore, hopefully restore, the discretionary authority to the U.S. Department of Labor to extend the CW visas,\u201d Sablan said.<\/p>\n
Sablan said Kia\u2019ana talked about what the Chamber and Labor need to do to set up their position papers and start lobbying and presenting white papers to local and federal Labor departments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe unfortunate decision to pull the CW authority from DOL was made with distorted information or the lack of information. The only information at the time was our 2010 Census, which declared that there are 2,400 people unemployed, 10,000 people that were sitting outside the labor force. So basically, one fifth of our population was unemployed in their purview,\u201d Sablan said.<\/p>\n
Sablan noted that 15,000 rooms are now projected to be built in the CNMI in the coming years, which would require more workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re attempting to try to do is ask if we can get [the discretionary authority] restored because of the needs beyond 2019 based on what we perceive as the development that is being projected now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sablan said the CNMI will not be able to meet the deadline and will not be ready to totally phase out the foreign workforce under the CW program. There are not enough individuals to sustain the CNMI economy beyond 2019, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this stage we can\u2019t even consider the idea of one person being lost to the Commonwealth, let alone thousands because we need to reduce [CW workers] to zero,\u201d Sablan said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a fact that we can\u2019t live without a foreign workforce because we don\u2019t have sufficient local workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n
It will take an act of Congress to restore the discretionary authority on the CW.<\/p>\n
Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) earlier said there is no executive way of getting around the 2019 deadline.<\/p>\n
Asked if it would be possible to extend the CW program, Sablan said what is needed is to change the program altogether. \u201cIf we\u2019re going to do something, we need to change the program rather than this present structure of the CW,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CNMI Secretary of Labor Edith DeLeon Guerrero said the Section 902 talks, or discussion between…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[2377,26,118,4322],"class_list":["post-212424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-alex-sablan","tag-cnmi","tag-cw","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212424","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=212424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}