Unintended consequences

In these troubling times, we urge (no, beg) government leaders to revisit the Commonwealth Employment Act to correct glaring deficiencies that are bound to leave hundreds of U.S citizens and residents unemployed while their foreign counterparts are gainfully employed during the time from June 1, 2009 until Dec. 31, 2011, otherwise known as the transition period of the law to federalize our immigration and labor laws.

Apparently, either the law itself or its implementing rules and regulations allow for the issuance of two-year permits to nonresident workers. What the law apparently allows also is exemption from the statutory required job vacancy announcements. This essentially means that employers, especially big employers, could renew employees for two years without having to announce the job opening.

These apparent defects in the law would probably have gone unnoticed if jobs were still plentiful as they were in the old days. But with the economy in shambles, exacerbated by failing economies around the world, including even the mighty U.S. economy, the policy of giving out two-year permits is going to come back to haunt government and business leaders alike in that the two-year permits issued between now and June 1, 2009, the implementation date of the federal immigration law, is going to make it practically impossible for any local worker to find work, beginning as of right now and lasting two years hence.

What politically correct excuse can our leaders proffer unemployed U.S. citizens and residents who will more than likely be unable to find a job because his/her foreign counterparts have the jobs locked up in two-year contracts with island employers? Or are we so gullible as to think that there will be more jobs in the post-federalization period and that all residents will then be able to find work? And what will the feds think if we were to ask them for a bailout for these residents and citizens who are rendered unemployed because we have allowed nonresident workers to take precedence over our own citizens and residents. We need to get our collective heads out of the sand and look at the problem that is staring us straight in the eyes.

While professional workers such as doctors, nurses, college professors, chief executive officers in hotels, and others with college degrees are welcome and will most likely be allowed under federalization since their inclusion is consistent with the aims and goals of U.S. immigration policy, Labor should work diligently at this time to ensure that whatever unskilled jobs that are currently available do indeed go to U.S. citizens and residents before they even think about renewing even one more employment contract, much less for a two-year period.

Citizens and residents refuse to believe that it was the intention of the Commonwealth Employment Act to provide jobs to nonresident workers in a shrinking economy, instead of jobless and unemployed citizens and residents.

If the two-year employment contracts and exemption from the statutory required posting of jobs are unintended consequences of the most recent labor legislation, then we beg legislators and government officials to go back to the drawing board pronto to correct the deficiencies so that residents and citizens are not left out in the cold yet again. Over the years, several legislations have been enacted supposedly to give local workers some justice but none has ever been enforced. Thus, to date, resident and citizen workers still do not enjoy the same benefits enjoyed by their nonresident counterparts. Hello, anybody home?

Don’t you think it is time that our Legislature and our government did do something for the people? Call your legislator. Call your governor. Let them know what you think.