CNMI employers have new energy

Catherine Cachero

Palpable hope and energy radiated from the Society of Human Resources Management’s membership meeting last Thursday after the anticipated CW bill was signed into law by President Donald Trump last July 24, 2018.

SHRM members are composed of human resources managers and personnel who are at the forefront of problems affecting labor in the CNMI. The new law extends the CW program to 2029, ensuring the CNMI’s continued access to foreign labor.

After months of uncertainty with regard to labor in the CNMI, the CW bill’s enactment has engendered positive feelings in the community, especially among human resources practitioners, according to SHRM vice president Catherine Cachero.

“I think the human resources community will be really busy in the next few days,” she said.

Cahero cited the recent announcement that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is going to resume accepting the applications for CW workers.

“People are now working on the new form and I think people are excited as the law resolves some of the labor shortages and concerns that people in the CNMI have been carrying the past months,” she said.

McDonald’s Saipan marketing manager Anna Olaes said that worries and doubts predominated while waiting for the CW bill to become law. “Hoping for the best was the mindset that we had while waiting for the bill to get passed in the Legislature and signed by the President Trump. This is definitely good news for us because we no longer have to worry about shortage of employment on island.”

“The CW program is a huge help to the community and employers can now go ahead and process applications. …We still have to hire U.S. citizens…but we need foreign hires for their experience and in training U.S. hires,” she added.

Malou Ernest, director for Human Resources at Asia Pacific Hotels, Inc. greatly appreciates the passage of the law. “The next days and months are sure to be very busy and challenging for human resource practitioners. The law brings much needed assurance to the labor situation in the CNMI,” she said.

“Employers and workers, together with their families, will have more stability where previously there was none,” she added.

Since the CW program is open again to a bigger number of slots in fiscal year 2019, Grandvrio Resort’s human resources manager, Lucy H. Santiago, said this would definitely result in more new businesses.

“If we have more employment, it will boil down to more businesses flourishing. We are now in the process of re-filing denied applications and we are looking forward to hopefully having those employees back and hire new ones if needed,” she said.

Roman Tudela from the Public School System said that because of the enactment of the CW bill into law, families that were torn apart because CW parents who were denied visas last year face the possibility of being able to come back on island to be with their children who were left behind.

“Many children were left behind by CW parents who were sent home because their applications were denied. We lost many students when they had to go back to their home country. With this, we expect the same students to come back.

“The law is going to benefit the CNMI with regard to filling in the hard-to-fill positions as well,” he added.