The president of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce believes that increasing the numerical limit on CW-1 workers\u2014foreign workers allowed to work in the CNMI\u2014from the current cap of 12,998 to 18,000\u2014an increase of around 5,000\u2014is enough to help in the Commonwealth\u2019s further economic development.<\/p>\n
The federal agency that handles foreign labor, called U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, has set the cap of CNMI-Only Transition Worker Nonimmigrant Visa, or CW-1, at 12,998. That number was filled last month, just three weeks since the start of fiscal year 2017.<\/p>\n
The cap is set by the Consolidated Natural Resources Act, which dictates that it must reach zero by 2019\u2014just three years from now.<\/p>\n
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres\u2019 administration, Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP), and business leaders\u2014the Chamber, the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Society of Human Resources-CNMI Chapter, and the Strategic Economic Development Council\u2014have asked Congress for help in finding a solution to the CNMI\u2019s labor issues.<\/p>\n
Tinian and Rota are included in the 18,000-worker increase in numerical cap. Alter City Group and Bridge Investment Group are building separate hotel projects on Tinian, while several investors are looking to develop the southern island of Rota.<\/p>\n
Chamber president Velma Palacios said that having 18,000 foreign workers would be enough to help support the CNMI\u2019s current economic development in the next two years. \u201cThe number of workers, we don\u2019t have that right now. Even if you add all workers here and those who are studying or are in the mainland, it won\u2019t be enough,\u201d said Palacios. \u201cWe\u2019re all working toward the CW program to have an increase with the cap, we\u2019re working very hard on that. We emphasized that, although\u2026a lot of businesses had hired local residents or U.S. citizens, there are still not enough workers and we will still be needing our workers in the CW program.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said that while a lot of businesses have also transitioned their employee to other applicable U.S. work visas\u2014like H1 and H2\u2014there are still those who are not qualified for that category. \u201cSo we need to find other ways, that\u2019s why we still need the program. There are a lot of jobs but we need people to fill them and we need workers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve also explained that some businesses continue to advertise in order to hire U.S. citizens and locals. The small businesses would be affected the most since they can\u2019t afford all the increases and H visa [category]. They have to pass the costs to the consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Members of the U.S. Government Accountability Office are scheduled to arrive this month to assess the CNMI\u2019s current labor issues. \u201cThey want to see if we\u2019re working to hire more U.S. citizens and training the local workforce. We do have a lot of companies, which hired and trained local citizens,\u201d said Palacios.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are working with the [Northern Marianas Trades Institute] and Latte Training Academy, especially in the hospitality industry. [Hotels] are also trying to do their own training program. But you can\u2019t train all, we need specific types of skilled workers and we can\u2019t just get them on the streets. You just can\u2019t train them in one month, there\u2019s a process in acquiring these skills.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The president of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce believes that increasing the numerical limit on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[26,118,2430,3778],"class_list":["post-240367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-cnmi","tag-cw","tag-latte-training-academy","tag-velma-palacios"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240367","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\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240367\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}