The people of the CNMI have been shafted again, proving that House Republicans still are doing the bidding of the exploitative forced labor industries in the CNMI.
Saipan Tribune:
The "Minimum Wage Competitiveness Act of 2006," introduced by Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) and 13 other Republicans, would raise the minimum wage from the current rate of $5.15 an hour to $7.15 an hour. The bill had also included a minimum wage hike for the CNMI, where it is currently at $3.05 an hour. This provision was removed from the bill when it went to the floor for deliberation. The bill that finally went to the Senate did not include the CNMI wage hike proposal. The measure was eventually killed in the Senate after it failed to get the required number of votes.
$3.05 an hour. According to the Republican House leadership, a fair and honest price. The proof is in the pudding, the House GOP leadership still does the bidding once done by the likes of Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay on behalf of sweatshop owners and sex tourist kingpins. Even in a bill doomed to fail, provisions raising the minimum wage in the CNMI is out of the question.
It goes to show how little has changed with House Republicans. DeLay may be gone and Ney on his way out, but the poisoned seeds which created both figures continues to thrive and steer policy.
The original provisions provided in the bill actually had teeth, calling for a minimum wage increase two months after the bill's enactment:
SEC. 3. APPLICABILITY OF MINIMUM WAGE TO THE COMMONWEALTH OF THE NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS.
(a) In General- Section 6 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 206) shall apply to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
(b) Transition- Notwithstanding subsection (a), the minimum wage applicable to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands under section 6(a)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 206(a)(1)) shall be--
(1) $3.55 an hour, beginning on the 60th day after the date of enactment of this Act; and
(2) increased by $0.50 an hour (or such lesser amount as may be necessary to equal the minimum wage under section 6(a)(1) of such Act), beginning 6 months after the date of enactment of this Act and every 6 months thereafter until the minimum wage applicable to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands under this subsection is equal to the minimum wage set forth in such section.
The bill was curiously co-sponsored by long-time Abramoff ally, Bob Ney. One has to wonder if he was a main force behind removing the CNMI provisions. Of course, Ney had a lot of help from his friends. According to an earlier Saipan Tribune piece:
...Democrat congressman George Miller was ready to move to recommit the CNMI within the wage section, "but it was decided by the majority to not allow this to be accomplished, and his attempt failed."
The motion to recommit failed 190-220. Stranger still, Rep. Ney voted to recommit. Was this a sign of conscience from a man on his way out of Congress? Or an underhanded procedural move? No matter. The end result is the same.
Some background on the CNMI's minimum wage, from the Global Survival Networks' Trapped-Human Trafficking for Forced Labor in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (a U.S. Territory).
Local control over the minimum wage levels was supposed to facilitate a gradual transition to federal minimum wage levels. Over twenty years have passed, and this goal still has not been reached. The CNMI minimum wage now lingers at $3.05 an hour, $2.10 less than the federal rate. This has resulted in a segmented labor market, with the local population barely represented in the private sector. Forty-seven percent of U.S. citizens-including the indigenous population, mainland "transplants" and naturalized Americans-work in higher-paying, high-prestige government jobs. About 16 percent of local U.S. citizens, however, are unemployed.
...
The CNMI government has repeatedly reneged on its promises to U.S. federal authorities to equalize its minimum wage with the federal minimum wage and to reduce the number of nonresident guest workers. During the Reagan administration, the increase in manufacturing facilities and consequent influx of guest workers raised the concerns of federal Interior Department officials. In 1986, Assistant Interior Secretary Rick Montoya, a Reagan appointee, wrote to CNMI Governor Pedro Tenorio, complaining that, "[R]ecent news reports of the tremendous growth in alien labor and abuse in the Northern Marianas are extremely disturbing."[9] According to Department of Interior records, Tenorio promised to address the problem. The number of guest workers, however, continued to swell. In 1992, Assistant Interior Secretary Stella Guerra, a Bush appointee, posed the same question to CNMI Governor Lorenzo Guerrero, but again no apparent action was taken. The number of foreign workers continued to grow.[10]
In 1995, a law raising the minimum wage (at that time $2.75) was introduced and passed in the CNMI Legislature. Increasing the wage by 30 cents a year until it reached U.S. mainland levels was the stated goal of the legislation. This law was repealed in 1996. A single increase to $3.05 was enacted by the CNMI legislature with no requirements for further increases.[11]
The CNMI government has repeatedly reneged on its promises to the U.S. government for two basic reasons. First, the CNMI government and CNMI-based foreign manufacturing companies benefit financially from the lax regulatory environment. Second, both CNMI officials and the foreign companies that take advantage of the islands' legal status have correctly assumed that labor and human rights conditions in a U.S. commonwealth some 8,000 miles from Washington, D.C. would neither regularly nor carefully be monitored by U.S. federal agencies.
The movement in CNMI minimum wage, as you can see, has roughly mirrored that of the United States. This valuation of industry and profits over workers rights and fairness can only go on so long as the populace stands for it. The fact that Congressional Republicans have found common ground with a nation's inhumane industries is no coincidence.
Here's what Willie Tan, sweatshop owner and CNMI kingpin, had to say to the GSN:
Mogul [Willie Tan]: I have a real good friend of Tom DeLay, the Majority Whip. And Tom tell me, say, [The Mogul], as long as we are in power they can't even see the light at the end of tunnel, they don't even see the light. So now it going to be two years, because Tom become real powerful this congress because Tom is the one who basically do--is the peacemaker. So guaranteed next two years no problem. Now, it look like George Bush son will become the next president.... Quite possibly. If we are Republican, we have no more problem again, so we going to have six years.
GSN: So you think as long as the Republicans are in control there won't be a problem?
Mogul [Willie Tan]: We have no problem. Even if the Democrat, they can pass it, they still have 10 years. Can't do it. But of the Democrat we only have three enemy, but they make a big thing about it. One is from California, George Miller, always a union guy. One is a Allen Stayman, from the Department of the Interior, who used to work in the Senate, and one is Jeff Farrow. Only three guy making our life so miserable. But so far they win nothing for last 15 years, nothing, because they unreasonable. But let's say the unreasonable now become reasonable, they have a ten years phase-out period, phase out plan, but they even cannot come close to that. But not many people understand because they don't deal with this issue, but I deal with this issue so I understand.
Willie Tan sounds terribly self-assured. If the Democrats regain control of the House, such self-assurance will be lost. As we can see with this recent minimum wage bill, the Republican leadership inwww.dictionar the House plan on keeping wages low, low, low so that big players in the CNMI like Tan can continue to reap their juicy profits. Even in a bill doomed to failure, mere inclusion of a minimum wage hike for the CNMI was too dangerous an idea.
(H-T to dengre for the GSN report excerpts. His work on this topic has been exhaustive in scope.)