SGMA’s Pierce resigns

After 21 years on the job, Richard A. Pierce has resigned from his post as executive director of the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association effective May 1, 2005.

This comes against a backdrop of continued decline in the garment industry in the wake of the lifting of worldwide quota restrictions in January this year.

At the same time, the SGMA office has relocated from Gualo Rai to the United International Corp. complex in San Antonio, effective May 1, 2005—a move that SGMA chair James C. Lin described as a means to maximize the use of their funds.

“This measure is SGMA’s response to a situation in our industry that requires the best use of funding to continue to provide benefits for our membership,” said Lin.

The telephone line, 235-7699, and fax number, 235-7899, will remain the same for contact with the SGMA offices, Lin and the board of directors.

In an e-mail interview, Pierce said his resignation was prompted by three reasons: “The association is trying to do the best it can with its limited resources, I feel I have accomplished what I had set out to do, and lastly, I wanted to pursue another venture.”

Pierce, who is currently in Seattle, said he will be taking a two-week vacation during which he will reflect on what he had accomplished in more than two decades worth of work with the SGMA. After that, he said he will be returning to Saipan to accomplish other goals. He declined to elaborate.

“The SGMA board of directors understand my reasons for tendering my resignation. We remembered the long history of our relationship within the industry since 1983. It was actually a touching moment for me,” he said.

When asked if he will still be working on garment related issues, he said, “You can take the boy out of the garment industry, but you can’t take the garment industry out of the boy.”

Pierce began his career in the garment industry in 1983 as president of Saipan Manufacturers Inc., which lasted until 1990. In 1988, SMI was the island’s largest factory with 800 employees. It was sold to a Fortune 500 company, Kellwood Industries from St. Louis, Missouri, in 1990.

“I became executive director of SGMA in 1990 until now, minus three years as the Governor’s Special Assistant for Drugs and Substance Abuse in 1995-1997,” he said.

Pierce is credited for being behind the SGMA Code of Conduct, where he got SGMA to work with Business for Social Responsibility to build the Code.

“I, with Frank Strasheim, created the Excellence 2000 Partnership between OSHA and SGMA, which ended up being the predecessor to the three-year old Northern Marianas Alliance for Safety and Health, or NMASH, which will hold its 3rd Annual Governor’s Health and Safety Conference in August this year, and the newest partnership between OSHA and HANMI,” he said.

NMASH is a collaboration between SGMA, Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands, Saipan Chamber of Commerce, Contractors Association, Northern Marianas College, Division of Environmental Quality, Department of Public Safety, Department of Public Works, Department of Labor, and OSHA.

Pierce also created the Western Pacific Economic Development Council, which is composed of the SGMA, Chamber, HANMI, Contractors, and Bankers Association.

”I have spent many hours in Washington, D.C. since 1985 for the industry. I was president of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce in 2001 and 2002 and with the Free Trade Zone Board and Minimum Wage Review Board before,” he said.

As SGMA executive director, Pierce said he spent much time traveling to major editorial boards for major national news outlets in America during the settled class action lawsuits against the industry.

“I never accepted what the class action attorneys Milberg & Weiss tried to do to our industry and buyers and retailers. I was as zealous about defending this industry as I was with trying to make our community understand the misery drugs and alcohol can bring to our community,” he said.

As the drug czar, Pierce said he built the CNMI Drug and Alcohol Workplace Policy.

“I actually drafted and delivered the CNMI’s first garment moratorium on the number of factories and workers in 1987. In 1997 I drafted the MOU between the CNMI and the Chinese Ministry of Trade, which the Attorney General has finally gotten the CNMI to utilize. I credit Pam Brown with this,” he said.

Pierce said SGMA would not replace him and instead keep the position of executive director vacant.

SGMA and its member companies said that they will continue to cooperate for the improvement and stabilization of the garment industry, to enforce its Code of Conduct in order to eradicate unfair trade practices, to distribute accurate and reliable reports, to advise and recommend on enactment of legislation in the interest of the garment industry and to represent the industry in all of its contacts with public officials and public authorities.

SGMA is preparing to provide a listing of its current members in good standing to the OSHA Region IX Administration, the Saipan Garment Oversight Board, the DEQ and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the CNMI Department of Labor and other entities annually notified of this listing, as well as posting on the SGMA website, www.sgma-saipan.org, and public notification.

The Saipan garment industry accounts for approximately 22,000 jobs on Saipan and approximately one-third of all tax revenue and government fees collected in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.