SGMA forms community action committee

In response to community requests for assistance in addressing problems associated with the Commonwealth’s necessary nonresident workforce, the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association (SGMA) last week formed the Garment Community Action Committee (GCAC). The committee, which is comprised of resident managers from several factories, will be tasked with assisting the community, the companies and the employees of SGMA’s 30 member companies.

Through action assessments and the resident managers’ liaison function between their companies and the community, GCAC will focus on matters such as traffic and pedestrian safety, theft of agricultural products, littering, residents’ complaints about generator noise, and other matters where the garment industry’s workforce impacts the residential community.

“Our new committee will bridge the gap between the community and the employees the lifeblood of the factories which provide for the services we all need,” said Tony Taisacan, chair of SGMA’s Resident Managers Association.
“GCAC is the logical progression of our local managers’ duties and responsibilities for our respective companies. We are the office staff that our local population appeal to when problems come up with our workers.”

Mr. Taisacan commented further, “Many garment factories have already put out policy memos on these issues to their employees in English and Chinese, but we still need more in the way of education. We need to go farther in our attempts to educate our employers and employees in pedestrian safety, for instance.”

SGMA Executive Director Richard A. Pierce indicated that SGMA and its membership have already been “stepping up to the plate” in these areas. “Some SGMA members have committed to funding for the installation of new pedestrian safety crosswalks in high traffic areas in San Antonio, Gualo Rai and Tanapag.
Through translators, we have utilized instructors from the Department of Public Safety to give educational talks at the factories themselves on CNMI law.”

Mr. Pierce noted that SGMA also continues to publicize safety suggestions and information about the SGMA Code of Conduct in the Chinese-language newspaper in the CNMI.

“Up until now, the SGMA office has simply encouraged Saipan property owners to submit an invoice for lost fruit and vegetables if one of our member’s factory workers takes something that does not belong to them. You wouldn’t believe how effective this has been.
Now we just want to institutionalize the process through GCAC. We view this as business for social responsibility,” Mr. Pierce explained.