Never mind my critic

Francisco R. Agulto wants readers to believe he is some kind of expert on collective bargaining within the CNMI. His half-truths are “whole lies.” His claim that collective bargaining does not exist within PSS is true but he didn’t get it that I was complaining about that very fact being true. But his assertion that the National Labor Relations Act does not extend to the CNMI is ludicrous; the law has just never been challenged. Wage and immigration control was not part of the deal either for the CNMI but as soon as local sovereignty laws proved to be “unfair and challenged” look what happened! 2. I can’t find a CNMI law for collective bargaining because of a legislative initiative to remove “collective bargaining” from the CNMI Constitution that the people approved due to the lack of education on the initiative; many people voted for it thinking they were helping the education system, not knowing they were literally killing the only “day-to-day” check by teachers on our education system. That is why collective bargaining is not in our laws anymore. 3. Just because a law doesn’t exist doesn’t mean it won’t exist because if teachers do organize they can actually force PSS, BOE and our leaders to grant them their right to collective bargaining; that is a matter of federal law! Evidently Francisco R. Agulto doesn’t understand how our federal system works and the power of federal rights over local rights because we do not live under a CNMI system as he seems to think. When will people like him get it that whenever we go fooling around with and challenging the right to “abuse” the basic laws and principles of America the CNMI will lose every time.

FYI, Francisco R. Agulto, you have also failed at being a good listener because I have been yelling and setting the conditions for the “perfect storm” ever since I first tried to get teachers their right to collective bargaining. You need to know that the CNMI Constitution was changed because of me and my efforts alone so I’m not just a tempest in a teapot, like you want people to think. Our teachers still have the worst contracts and working conditions in America. But I guess Agulto doesn’t care about our teachers as he was only interested in keeping them from gaining their constitutional collective bargaining rights. He didn’t learn a single thing from the wages and immigration battles the CNMI lost! In fact and I hate to say it, but most CNMI citizens have far more faith in our federal government than our local CNMI government!

Ambrose M Bennett
Kagman, Saipan