By Mabel Doge Luhan
My loyal possums, the impossible is transpiring this very second.
I’m praising the CNMI Department of Labor!
Their latest press release (about the Division of Employment Services) gives me hope. Finally, the CNMI DOL is serious about fostering work — rather than shaking down those who dare work. I must admit, I grew a little warm and tingly when I realized the press release did not even make any reference to only serving specific ethnic groups! Try that, CNMI DOL of the past!
As I’ve caterwauled EXTENSIVELY in this column, the old DOL operated for its own needs — the needs of its staff. In the garment days, the workers were a good source of cash shakedowns. And that primarily female, young, foreign, and vulnerable workforce was ripe for sexual exploitation from CNMI DOL’s finest.
But what in tarnation am I talking about? We haven’t had garment workers here for nearly two decades. Now, we hear about labor shortages from businesses. And we hear about money shortages from workers, and even from CNMI government employees.
A One-Stop Job Center can fulfill the government’s most fundamental and most useful role: coordinating cooperation and creating an information clearinghouse. Just getting the information flowing freely, so people know what jobs and what people are available, will do a lot — and is cheap. A lot cheaper than creating more sinecures to hire more people in need of jobs.
Seriously, well, done. For the first time, CNMI DOL is doing things a department of labor should do — rather than primarily extortionary tasks usually associated with guys from Hoboken named Fat Lip Clarence. Those days may very well be completely behind us!
Even The Tortured Poets Department has room for improvement, and so it is with the The Unemployed Islander Department! Neither of these proposals will be politically popular nor perhaps politically feasible. But THE NICE THING ABOUT BEING AN OPINION COLUMNIST IS I DON’T HAVE TO ACTUALLY IMPLEMENT ANY OF MY DANDER-BRAINED IDEAS! So hear me out.
First, DOL should be lobbying and advocating to get all our “out of status” foreign workers back to work — meaning allowing them some way to work legally, or at the very least, letting them drive legally. And invite them in to DOL. DOLs in the mainland US have day worker centers that match undocumented workers to jobs. Discuss it with counsel first, but you would be helping not just our undocumented residents, but also our business community by helping them match to workers.
Second, DOL should be actively encouraging people to get out of the CNMI. Help them find jobs in Guam or Hawaii or the mainland US. Many of the CNMI’s people most in need of jobs are also the least capable of effectively searching for jobs online, long-distance, or even presenting themselves to a potential faraway employer. DOL can help them make that leap — and get away from the dreary job market in Saipan, as well as the reliance on the CNMI government as an employer. Remote work too. DOL can “partner” (I hate that word but still use it, just like I keep licking the 9V battery) with a remote work job matching service. There are already people in the CNMI successfully working remotely, for wages much higher than those available here. Let’s continue the trend. And guess what: if remote work becomes really popular among Saipan’s population, it will increase wages among local employers, who will have to compete. (It will also increase living costs here, of course. Everyone forgets that when asking for higher wages.)
The new DOL is nothing like the old DOL. It seems to actually care about helping the workers and employers of the CNMI. But if even Taytay can do better, then so can CNMI DOL.
_____
Mabel Doge Luhan is a woman of loose morals. She resides in Kagman V, where she pursues her passions of crocheting, beatboxing, and falconry.
