To protest for 3-year limit repeal Businessmen eye protest march in Senate grounds

With the clock running out on nonresident workers and employers affected by the three-year limit law, the Saipan Chamber of Commerce is keen in taking a tougher stance in pressuring the legislature to pass House Bill 12-317.

Richard Pierce, Chamber vice president and chair of government relations committee, said the business group will not just sit around and let the Senate dilly-dally on the three-year limit’s repeal.

“The Senate must not do anything to upset what is already a delicate situation and that’s an economy that is on a downturn,” Mr. Pierce said. “I will personally gather people to go up and congregate at the Senate office buildings and tell them to have this law repealed.”

The chamber vice president also revealed that a broad coalition of business associations are also massing to air to the Legislature their concern over the three-year limit law.

The Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association, which Mr. Pierce leads, has come up with its own position against the three-year limit.

He also said industries heavily reliant on nonresident workers will bare the brunt of Public Law 11-69’s non-repeal. “The tourism industry, hotel industry, construction industry, service and trades, they are all going to suffer if the Senate doesn’t act on HB 12-317.”

The tourism and service industries, Mr. Pierce inferred, have dedicated a lot of their time and resources in the training of employees. And to see them go without available and qualified residents to replace them would cripple their business.

He also expressed concern on the possibility of nonresident workers opting to remain in the islands illegally. Some, he said, might just “disappear” because the law says they have to leave for six months.

Mr. Pierce said that until such time when the Commonwealth is able to meet its own labor demands from within, there will always be a need for nonresidents to come in and continue to occupy the jobs that provides people here with the standard of living they want, they need and that they are happy with.

“Until that time happens, the legislature should stop doing things that burden businesses and make it more expensive to do business. What our lawmakers are doing is akin to shooting yourself on the foot,” Mr. Pierce expressed.

Mr. Pierce’s statements follow a growing clamor for the Senate to immediately pass HB 12-317, which sailed through the House of Representatives early this month. Former two-time Chamber President Jose Ayuyu and current Chamber President Anthony Pellegrino have both come out in the papers to say that the three-year limit on nonresident workers must go.