Thousands of Pinoys on Saipan Island line up for Guam jobs

GARAPAN, Saipan - Filipinos working on Saipan Island are raring to go to Guam, not for leisure but for employment. On Saturday afternoon, thousands of these job hopefuls flocked to Saipan’s American Memorial Park amphitheater to try their luck at landing on high-paying jobs on Guam where construction is expected to boom soon amid the US military buildup there. Filipinos on Saipan have been seriously affected by the ailing economy of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), which led to the two-fold increase in utility bills, and frequent island-wide power outages, among others. Many Filipinos could no longer send enough money to their families because a big chunk of their salaries goes to payment of utilility bills. Many Filipino construction workers on Saipan only earn a minimum wage of $4.05 an hour. Starting pay in Guam for the said position is between $8 and $16. At the amphitheater on Saturday, Filipinos submitted their credentials and had their names registered for possible employment on Guam through the United Workers Movement NMI. The workers group will present the documents to the Guam Contractors Association (GCA) who will hire the applicants. Relocation Guam is preparing for the relocation of thousands of US Marines and other US armed forces personnel from Okinawa by 2014. The military buildup requires major construction projects to support it, including building of new housing units and seaport infrastructure, and related services. Guam’s current population of about 171,000 includes some 14,000 people who are under the US Department of Defense. This number is expected to triple to more than 40,000 in a five-year period as a result of the force realignment. “Nagbabakasakali ako na makakuha ng trabaho sa Guam kasi mas mataas ang pasweldo doon kaysa dito (I’m trying my luck to get a job on Guam because the salary there is higher than what they give here)," Rommel Ruiz, a trailer truck driver from Bulacan province, told GMANews.TV. Ruiz, 42, has been a contract worker on Saipan for 16 years. Ruiz's job contract expires tomorrow, Sunday. His last employer, a garment factory, has just stop operations. He said he would look for another job on Saipan while waiting for the result of his job application in Guam. GCA and the United Workers Movement NMI led by labor rights activist Irene Tantiado, of Cebu province, are working together to look into the available pool of construction workers from Saipan who can be tapped for Guam projects. The sheer size of the crowd during the job fair, according to worker-leaders, speaks of the economic hardships being felt by foreign laborers on Saipan, CNMI's capital. Both the CNMI and Guam are US territories in the Western Pacific. They are about 30 minutes away from each other by plane. “Dito mo mapapatunayan na marami na ang naghihirap na contract workers dito. Gusto na nilang lumipat sa ibang lugar gaya ng Guam dahil bagsak na ang ekonomiya ng Saipan (This is where you can prove that there are lots of contract workers who are having hardships here. They want to move to other places like Guam because Saipan’s economy is now down)," Ronnie Doca, president of the Pilipino Contract Workers Association told GMANews.TV. At their worst The CNMI’s tourism and garment-based economies are at their worst. Fewer tourists have been coming in and the once almighty garment industry is almost gone as factories move to other Third World countries where labor is cheaper. The exodus of garment factories resulted from World Trade Organization rules allowing Asian countries to export to the United States, weakening Saipan’s competitiveness. Hiring people from Saipan to work on Guam, according to Tantiado, will be better because these contract workers are already familiar with US laws. Guam contractors have already started recruiting workers from the Philippines and other countries to meet their need for skilled labor, Tantiado said. Most of the estimated 18,000 foreign contract workers in the CNMI are Filipinos, followed by Chinese. The rest include Koreans, Bangladeshis, Thais, Nepalese, and Japanese. Angel Nicolas, 34, has a good paying job as a cargo agent on Saipan but he thinks there’s no harm in trying to apply for a higher-paying job on Guam. He currently earns $5 an hour on Saipan, but for the same job on Guam, he can have $12. “That’s more than double," he told GMANews.TV, as he waited for his turn to apply for work at the American Memorial Park amphitheater. Julie Ann Viola, 27, also lined up to register for a job on Guam. “Kahit anong trabaho na pwede, ok lang sa akin(Whatever job is available is fine with me), the sales representative said. She has been on Saipan for three years. Ramon Liangco, 50, has been a carpenter on Saipan for 18 years. He is paid $4.05 an hour but only if there are projects. It’s been three weeks since he last had a job. The company he worked for failed to get projects. Once, he was left with no construction project for three months, prompting him to take part-time jobs to support him and his family. “Mahirap talaga (It’s really hard)," said Liangco, of Fairview, Quezon City. He said on Guam, he could earn $12 to $15 an hour as a carpenter. “Kahit isang taon lang akong makapagtrabaho sa Guam ay okay na. Matanda na rin ako. Gusto ko na ring tumigil sa pagtatrabaho abroad (Just a year of working on Guam will be okay with me. I am already old. I also want to stop working abroad)," he said. Liangco was a contract worker in Riyadh from 1984 to 1989. In 1991, he started working on Saipan. Almost two decades later, he said he was still hoping he would be able to provide more for his family. Pirating of foreign workers Tantiado, president of the United Workers Movement NMI, said her group would continue to register construction workers until next week. “I will personally deliver these documents to the GCA sometime early September after we fix our database and we collated everything," she said. Filipino contract workers from the CNMI’s two other major islands – Tinian and Rota – also applied for jobs in Guam. According to Tantiado, before Filipinos could work in Guam, they have to exit Saipan and go back to the Philippines for the processing of their job placements. She said the original plan was to have representatives from the GCA come to Saipan for the job fair. However, Tantiado said the CNMI local community criticized the plan of “pirating foreign workers" from Saipan. This forced the GCA to change its mind, and instead tasked the United Workers Movement NMI to prepare for the database of applicants. “We couldn’t understand what the CNMI wants. They want contract workers to leave; now that we have found a way to reduce the number of contract workers here, they say no. Instead of helping the workers who no longer have a job here or who are about to lose their jobs because of a down economy, they add more problems," said Tantiado in Filipino. - GMANews.TV