Previous Story
Pete A. pushes for 10-year transition period
|
Posted on Aug 21 2008
In a letter to U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, CNMI Resident Representative Pete A. Tenorio requested that the five-year transition period mandated in Public Law 110-229 be extended to 10 years.
“Replacing foreign workers with U.S. citizens or citizens of the Freely Associated States is a process that requires education, training and skill development so that these workers can qualify for many of the existing jobs,” Tenorio pointed out in his letter. “It also requires time, as many of these potential new local employees are either too young to join the workforce or they are not trained in any trade or vocational and technical disciplines.”
“The main reason that the number of foreign workers has declined in the last several years is because of the closure of the majority of CNMI’s garment factories and numerous other businesses. It is not because they have been overwhelmingly replaced by ‘local’ workers. The CNMI must be able to attract new businesses and those new businesses will want some assurance that there is a stable workforce,” added Tenorio.
Although the newly established law allows for an extension after five years, Tenorio believes one will be necessary and there is no reason to delay its implementation.
Public Law 110-229 requires that by Dec. 31, 2014, or the end of the transition period, the number of permits to hire transitional workers be reduced to zero.
“In all honesty, I do not see how the number of trained local workers will be nearly sufficient to fill existing jobs, let alone any new jobs that I hope are created by new business investors in the CNMI in the near future,” said Tenorio.
A 10-year transition period “will provide at least some breathing room for potential business investors to invest with confidence that they will have the needed manpower to operate their businesses, and allow time to truly begin training a local workforce to take over these jobs in the future. Time and the level of new investments will tell if we may need additional extensions beyond this, but I am certain, as I believe most employers are, that this first extension will be necessary,” concluded Tenorio.[B][I] (PR)
[/I][/B]
