Cavanagh: It is necessary

Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands board chair Gloria Cavanagh thinks actions discussed in the 902 talks concerning the labor workforce of the CNMI are necessary to solve the crisis crippling the growth of the CNMI.

Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) reintroduced his House Resolution 339 to Congress in the first week of January to extend the CW 1 program beyond 2019, raise the CW1 limit to 18,000 for one year, consider the use of immigration policies to address CNMI and Guam labor shortages, and extend eligibility of the federal workforce development programs to the CNMI.

“Because the CNMI economy was still down, they were able to reduce the slots until we were below 13,000 [foreign workers]. What happened was the CNMI economy was starting to go up, so when the CWs were used to bring the construction workers in, the CNMI was dead in the water,” Cavanagh told Saipan Tribune.

“Two weeks after the fiscal year’s opening of CW slots, it was already capped out. It is an emergency, it is something that we need to relieve soon,” she added.

Sablan introduced HR 339 to increase the cap by 2,002 for a year, bumping the cap to 15,000 foreign worker slots.

Cavanagh recognizes the labor shortage and the impending 2019 cutoff of the CW1 program as an emergency for the CNMI.

“If that [extending the CW1 program past 2019] does not happen, we are looking at thousands of people leaving the island at the end of February to early March. For HANMI, it is really scary because each and every one of [foreign worker] is part of a whole department of the hotel. Like for one hotel, 23 of their chefs are going to be leaving in March, so it is an emergency,” she said.

Cavanagh hopes the 902 report’s recommendations to Congress would go smoothly.

“If they [Congress] do agree to the stipulations as far as raising the cap by 2,002 and also to address a more permanent status for our long-term workers, the [labor] problem would be solved,” she said.

Cavanagh also supports giving long-time CW workers here a better status to open slots for other CW workers.

“Could you imagine if [Congress] actually gave us a more permanent status for our long-term workers? That is probably about 4,000 people that can actually stay here and not need a CW-1. Fifteen thousand plus that is 19,000,” she added.

“I think this would solve everything, unless of course, we experience even more growth, which is a good problem but is also an urgent crisis…again,” she added.