‘CW bill prioritizes long-term workers’

The recently passed NMI U.S. Workforce Act that is currently awaiting U.S. President Donald Trump’s signature does not only ensure a 10-year extension and added slots to the CNMI-Only Transitional Worker program, but it also ensures that long-term immigrant workers in the CNMI are taken care of first.

During the weekly Rotary Club of Saipan meeting at the Hyatt Regency Saipan yesterday, Alex Sablan, guest speaker and Northern Marianas Business Alliance Corp. chairman, informed Rotarians that the fight to stabilize the CNMI’s immigrant workforce is nearing its end and shared how thankful he was.

“At the end of the day, we are at the end of our road here and hopefully by July 10, President Trump will sign the legislation into law and we will get the 13,000 CW workers on the current bill and we will get an extension until 2029…we are just very thankful that we have this legislation moving forward,” he said

“With that 13,000 there is a diminishing number in place…there will be 500 reduced every year for five years and then 1,000 for the remainder of the term,” he added.

Among some of the finer details, Sablan’s presentation focused on how the NMI U.S. Workforce Act addressed what the NMBAC lobbied hard for which was consistency and continuity in the CNMI workforce.

“We asked for either specific separate visa for longterm legacy employees…this legislation identifies individuals five years or longer in the Commonwealth in the date of legislation enactment and what it will provide for is priority for applications…” he said.

Sablan said that the Workforce Act states that individuals that have already been given a CW-1 visa in the prior fiscal year will be prioritized and will be allowed to submit their CW renewal applications six months earlier than knew applicants.

“What it allows for is individuals that are already permitted in the Commonwealth…six months in advance application for employers and employees and for all new hires, they will have to submit in 120 days of the fiscal year ending and so what that does is gives priority to legacy employees and continuity for workers who are already here in the Commonwealth so we don’t have a huge amount of new employees overwhelming the system and taking over positions that have already been held by long-term workers,” he said.

According to Sablan, the NMI U.S. Workforce Act also recognizes legacy employees so immigrants who have worked in the CNMI for five years or longer will be able to apply for three-year visas.

Sablan said that the legislation will also serve as a gateway to an increase in wages for immigrant workers given that the legislation helps improve the CNMI’s economy.

“We are in a different economy and wages must go exponentially higher based on what our economy is able to establish so we pressed and pushed for establishing a prevailing wage within the CW system and that will inevitably raise wages exponentially for all” he said.

“We see wages exponentially for all locations as our economy continues to improve and so on that… I think we will do well for the new law…we may need to take a look at it again down the road based on the numbers, but at the end of the day we are very, very thankful to all the leadership of the Commonwealth,” he added.