Displaced workers are refused assistance

More than 20 alien workers who have been displaced from their jobs trooped to the Karidat Social Service in Chalan Kanoa yesterday afternoon to ask for subsistence assistance, but were temporarily turned down amid reports that the Attorney General’s Office has taken over the Karidat’s humanitarian aid program for alien workers.

Some of those workers claimed that they were also turned down by the AGO when they asked the agency for assistance Wednesday afternoon.

“What the AGO said was that the aid could not be released yet. We were advised to coordinate with the Philippine Consulate first,” said Nelida Concepcion, a former garment worker who has a pending labor case.

“The AGO should be fair to all displaced workers. We were displaced and have pending labor cases, not abandoned workers, so we can’t get help?” Concepcion asked.

Another worker, a 47-year-old Papago resident who claims of being been displaced by a Saipan garment factory last March, said humanitarian aid should be given not only to abandoned workers, but also to those who simply have pending labor claims against their employers.

The worker, who requested anonymity, said Karidat has been providing displaced laborers like him subsistence assistance, but it couldn’t help him yesterday amid reports that it would no longer be administering the humanitarian aid program.

“I’m already having difficulty with being jobless. Now that I want to available of the $200 aid, the AGO would want me to go through a difficult process,” he said.

Reportedly, the AGO began to take over Karidat’s humanitarian program for alien workers beginning Oct. 1. The CNMI government has reportedly obtained a $100,000 labor initiative grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, which would allow abandoned garment workers to get $200 in humanitarian aid on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Attorney General Pamela Brown could not be reached for an interview at press time to clarify the takeover issue and the scope of humanitarian aid available. The Saipan Tribune visited the Karidat office to interview its executive director, Angie DeLeon Guerrero, but was told that she was meeting with the governor about the takeover issue.

Hundreds of garment workers have lost their jobs after the closure of four Saipan factories and the downsizing of others. Two other factories have disclosed plans to shut down their operations soon, as local industry players suffer from diminished global competitiveness following this year’s lifting of trade restrictions on apparel pursuant to a World Trade Organization accord.