[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 134 (Tuesday, August 14, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1147-E1148]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       STAND UP FOR U.S. WORKERS

                                 ______
                                 

                  HON. GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN

                    of the northern mariana islands

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, August 14, 2018

  Mr. SABLAN. Mr. Speaker, the recently announced decision to lay off 
``temporarily'' hundreds of U.S. workers at the Imperial Pacific 
International casino construction site in the Northern Mariana Islands 
raises serious concerns about the use of foreign labor at this project. 
Pacific Rim, the contractor, announced the lay-off in July pending 
``contract renegotiations.'' Meanwhile, work will go on, using foreign 
workers with H-2B visas to replace the U.S. workers.
  Even half-finished, the Imperial Pacific International casino has 
lifted the economy of the Marianas. So, local news has focused on 
reassuring the public that work to complete the casino and its 
associated resort would continue. But these reassurances mean little to 
the U.S. workers who have lost their jobs, or to their families.
  It also raises the question of why the U.S. Department of Labor, as 
it has reported to me, issued 1,668 foreign labor certifications to 
Imperial Pacific International to hire the H-2B visa holders, who are 
now taking the jobs of U.S. workers in apparent contravention of U.S. 
labor law.
  Labor issued these foreign labor certifications to Imperial Pacific 
International (IPI) despite the history of occupational safety and 
health and wage and hour violations that the Department previously 
uncovered at this job site.
  In May 2017, after a worker fell to his death and multiple other, 
serious workplace injuries were treated at the local hospital, the 
Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposed $193,750 in 
penalties for three of IPI's construction subcontractors.
  In March 2018, the Department finalized settlements with IPI 
subcontractors of $13.9 million for unpaid wages and liquidated damages 
owed to over 2,400 employees.
  In addition to these violations of the Occupational Safety and Health 
Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act, a raid of the site by the Federal 
Bureau of Investigation also revealed that the subcontractors had been 
unlawfully employing persons who were admitted to the United States 
from China as tourists.

[[Page E1148]]

  This record in itself should have raised red flags at the U.S. 
Department of Labor. But the underlying purpose and process for foreign 
labor certification seems also in this case to have been subverted.
  In order to obtain foreign labor certifications, which are a 
prerequisite to applying for an H-2B visa, an employer must attest that 
the job in question will be offered to any qualified and available U.S. 
worker who applies or is referred for the job opportunity. And in order 
to obtain an H-2B visa, an employer must attest that they have not laid 
off and will not lay off any similarly employed U.S. worker, unless the 
layoff is for lawful, job-related reasons and unless all H-2B workers 
are laid off first. The present lay-offs of U.S. workers, while work 
continues using H-2B workers, cannot be consistent with these employer 
attestations.
  Let us look at the history of the Imperial Pacific International 
worksite:
  In fiscal year 2016 the Marianas experienced a labor crisis, when the 
annual, numerical cap was reached for the Commonwealth Only 
Transitional Worker (CW) program. For the first time the Department of 
Homeland Security stopped accepting applications for this foreign labor 
program, unique to the Marianas. As the Government Accountability 
Office explained in a 2017 report commissioned by Senate Energy and 
Natural Resources Committee Chairman Lisa Murkowski, Ranking Member 
Maria Cantwell, and I:

       Demand for foreign workers in the CNMI exceeded the 
     available number of CW-1 permits in 2016--many approved for 
     workers from China and workers in construction occupations. 
     The construction of a new casino in Saipan is a key factor in 
     this demand.

  In fact, GAO reported, the demand for foreign workers jumped from 
9,188 in 2014 to a number exceeding the 2016 cap of 13,299, almost 
entirely because of the demand for construction workers. The result was 
to crowd out established, local businesses, who employed CW workers and 
to force long-time foreign workers, who had demonstrated value to our 
economy and established roots in our community, to return home.
  Not only was this crush of construction workers at the casino site 
economically and socially disruptive, it also did not jibe with the 
rules for the CW program. CW permits are only available to employers of 
foreign workers who are ineligible for any other U.S. work visa. 
Although some of the casino construction workers held CW permits (and 
some were employed illegally, having entered as tourists), we now know 
that these workers could well have received H-2B visas. Because, as the 
U.S. Department of Labor has reported, it issued 1,668 H-2B foreign 
labor certifications to IPI.
  To end further abuse of the CW program and to protect the interests 
of local businesses in my district and their long-term workers and 
their families, I introduced legislation that, among other provisions, 
prohibited any further use of CW permits for new construction workers 
in the Marianas. Chairman Murkowski observed at her committee's hearing 
on my bill, H.R. 339, that this bar on the use of CW permits for new 
construction workers was in her view the most important provision. Not 
only did it curb the abuse of the CW permit, but it was also meant to 
force the federal government to make the determination, through the 
foreign labor certification process, of whether U.S. workers were 
available for any construction jobs on offer. President Trump signed my 
bill into law in August 2017. It became U.S. Public Law 115-53.
  IPI quickly responded to these new constraints by hiring Pacific Rim, 
a U.S.-based firm, to continue construction of the casino. And Pacific 
Rim president and owner Keith Stewart announced to the Guam Daily Post 
that he was looking to hire hundreds of skilled U.S. tradesmen for the 
work. I include in the Record comments from Edward Deleon Guerrero, 
Executive Director of the Commonwealth Casino Commission, who reacted 
positively to this news in an interview with KSPN-TV in January 2018:

       Reporter: IPI is currently in contractual conversations 
     with a new construction company, Pacific Rim, to finish the 
     resort.
       Guerrero: We are more confident when we are dealing with a 
     U.S. construction company.
       Reporter: IPI's previous, Chinese-based construction 
     companies brought in illegal construction workers and 
     ultimately caused progress on the building to come to a 
     standstill, once the FBI realized what was going on. Guerrero 
     hopes to avoid, quote, `another fiasco like that from 
     happening again.'
       Guerrero: Definitely do not want to see a repeat of that.
       Reporter: This time around, however, the work will be done 
     with mostly U.S. based workers.
       Guerrero: It is my understanding that all, I mean, most, if 
     not all of the workers are U.S. construction workers.

  In March, Pacific Rim held a job fair on Guam, which drew 
enthusiastic response from U.S. workers, who expressed a willingness to 
move to Saipan for new work opportunities and the chance to earn 
overtime and per diem, in addition to their regular pay. At the fair 
Pacific Rim General Superintendent Tony Costa confirmed to the Post 
that his company wanted to have around 500 U.S. workers on the IPI 
site.
  Marianas Governor Ralph Torres even testified with pride before the 
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on February 6 of this 
year about the turnaround:

       I'm proud to announce that because of learning of an issue 
     that was experienced last year, we have signed U.S. 
     contractors to finish the hotel of the casino that was 
     signed, I believe, less than a month ago that will be hiring 
     more U.S. workers to finish the construction of the hotel 
     site.

  The Governor also said IPI intended to complete construction by 
August 2018 and assured the Committee that his administration was 
closely monitoring labor conditions at the site. It should be noted, 
too, that the original casino license agreement included the stated 
objective to have permanent U.S. residents be at least 65 percent of 
all employees--an objective that has not been met.
  The Governor's testimony came at the hearing held to consider the 
Northern Mariana Islands U.S. Workforce Act, legislation that Chairman 
Murkowski and I had jointly introduced to incentivize the hiring of 
U.S. workers in the Marianas. President Trump signed the Act into law 
on July 24. Among other new protections for U.S. workers, Public Law 
115-218 extends to the CW program the requirement for prior U.S. 
Department of Labor labor certifications, a stipulation the Governor, 
the Marianas Legislature, and our business community all rightly agreed 
to.
  Despite all these efforts and assurances to U.S. workers, however, at 
the same time IPI had begun the process of applying for foreign labor 
certifications from the U.S. Department of Labor with the intent to 
secure H-2B visas and hire foreign construction workers. Nominally, 
these foreign workers were to buttress, not replace Pacific Rim's U.S. 
workforce. Instead, U.S. workers have now lost their jobs, replaced by 
foreign workers. Attestations to the U.S. Department of Labor that U.S. 
workers would not be laid off and replaced with foreign workers have 
not proven true. Assurances by the Governor to keep watch on the 
Imperial Pacific job site seem hollow in light of recent events.
  This must stop.
  The people of the Northern Mariana Islands, whom I represent, are 
tired of having outside, foreign interests time-after-time give our 
islands a black eye by skirting the law, cutting corners on safety, 
playing fast and loose with the rules and thinking they can get away 
with it, beholden only to their bottom line and a handful of high-
ranking local officials.
  The U.S. Department of Labor, after enabling IPI by granting 1,668 
foreign labor certifications, must take immediate action to step up 
enforcement and ensure IPI maintains absolute compliance with U.S. law.

                          ____________________