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03/20/25 - The CNMI’s labor issues were front and center during Tuesday's Society of Human Resources Management’s March 2025 general membership meeting at the jam-packed The Caladium function room of LaoLao Bay Golf & Resort.
And March being Women’s Month, SHRM specially invited two women who have intimate knowledge about the problems that beset the Commonwealth’s labor force—CNMI Delegate Kimberlyn King-Hinds and CNMI Labor Secretary Leila Staffler.
King-Hinds, who aside from being a lawyer has a master’s degree in human resources, said one of the more pressing matters the CNMI workforce faces right now is the fast-approaching expiration of the CNMI Transitional Worker Program and she asked for SHRM’s assistance in securing, at the very last, an extension of the CW program.
“We need a unified voice today on the future to the labor market that we need. We need a unified strategy to get Washington to act. That means working with every sector, business owners, workers, local leaders, to make it clear to Congress that letting this program expire would be economic suicide.”
And because of ongoing debates in the CNMI’s very own shores about immigration and labor force issues, King-Hinds said the Commonwealth will have a harder time trying to get an extension for the CW program.
“We all have to recognize that those words we use have consequences. When we give fuel to the fire of restricting tourism, we are also putting our workforce and economy at risk. Let me tell you how. Our access to tourists and our access to foreign workers come from the same place. It comes from the same law and when we give fuel to those calling for an end to the exemptions that keep our customers coming, that includes the exemptions that allow us to have the workers that we need. And thanks to the misconceptions some people have helped to push, the fight to fix the CW program, the fight we all know must happen, has just gotten harder.”
While King-Hinds believes the CNMI economy will be in a better position in 2029, she wonders if there will be enough workers left to help the islands rebuild.
“People are leaving, and by 2029, the immigration transition program will expire. We've all done this fight before. We've fought for extensions before. And remember, the last time, it took us over five years to secure that program. We don't have five years this time, and the conversation with Congress should already have started. But it hasn't.”
At the end of the day, the first-term congresswoman said the CNMI needs an immigration program that recognizes that its labor needs do not fit into a national system and a labor system that acknowledges that the CNMI has unique economic conditions that no other U.S. jurisdiction faces.
“[We need a] system that provides flexibility to match labor availability with economic conditions on the ground, not arbitrary annual quotas. A system that stabilizes our labor market instead of forcing a transition to an immigration system that is already broken. I want us to be all a part of this conversation because we all have a stake in this conversation.”
Staffler, meanwhile, shared a bit of good news that the CNMI’s labor force actually grew by around 1.4% from 23,005 in 2022 to 23,334 in 2023(2024 data is not available yet).
“There has been a 14% decrease in the workforce overall since 2019, just based on the ratio report numbers. [But] between 2022 and 2023, because the 2024 report is not yet completed, there was an increase in the workforce population by 1%. So, there is a minor increase. Every little point counts, but yes, 1% is not enough. And that's just the workforce alone. I'm not even speaking on our customer base, which is really what's driving all of the work we do.”
Staffler also shared the Top 5 job vacancy announcements in the CNMI with construction and extraction on the top of the list followed by installation, maintenance, and repair; food preparation; building grounds maintenance; and health care.
The local Labor chief also lamented the fact that CNMI Labor doesn’t exactly have a relationship with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is the very agency that oversees the CW program.
“I don't have somebody in that office that I can call and ask these things. I've been trying for two years, and I still don't have that. The Department of Labor doesn't talk to the USCIS either. So, I can't ask the Department of Labor how many CWs came to us, because USCIS is the final decision. And there's no mechanism within the law to require that. So, recommendations that I have given to our delegate include more definition of what CW has to do, one example that I've asked them to consider with respect to the appeals and the whole process.”
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Story by Mark Rabago
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