THREE company executives are lobbying the legislature for the rejection of a bill that would impose a $20,000 fee on each H-2 worker who will be brought into Guam.
Road builders are fixing a portion of Marine Corps drive in this file photo. With the impending military buildup, Guam is witnessing a construction boom, but sue to the labor shortage, local construction companies are compelled to bring H-2 workers from Asia.
by Therese Hart Marianas Variety News Staff
Thomas Anderson, Jr., executive vice president of Black Construction Corporation and Irene and Dave Hicks, small business owners, are urging senators not to support Bill 48, which is expected to be heard in today’s session.
Bill 48, if passed into law, would impose a $20,000 annual fee for each H-2 worker and “is a devastating blow to any tightly run business,” said Anderson.
“There are many small businesses in our community. There are only few a big ones. Everyone one of them has manpower requirements and a number of them bring in H-2 workers to work for them,” Anderson said.
“If you put this huge levy on H-2 workers on a small business, they can’t afford to cough up that money just to bring somebody in. If they can’t- that means they don’t have enough workers so their business is going to diminish. It’ll affect everyone across the board,” Anderson added.
He said that if companies pay the $20,000 fee to bring in H-2 workers, they can’t absorb that immediate cost and transfer that cost off to their clients.
“These people are not going to be able to sustain their business. So you’re not only not going to have H-2 workers, but you’re going to have local workers who are working right now, are going to be unemployed,” said Anderson.
Anderson said the bill, if passed into law, would cause an unemployment effect for the entire island. “That is a bigger problem than the H-2 problem because you’ve got hundreds and hundreds of small businesses and they are dependent on these people to run their business,” he said.
Most vulnerable
Anderson said the small business community on Guam will be hit the hardest if the bill become law.
“The small business community on Guam support and drive our economy. They survive in the market place with extended owner participation and competitive pricing in spite of limited working capital, fluctuating revenues and escalating labor and material costs,” he said.
Anderson said Bill 48 can send small businesses into a downward spiral that it sometimes cannot overcome and will eventually force closure.
“The reality is that in today’s world, Guam’s small businesses have become heavily dependent upon H-2 workers to supplement their local workforce to meet requirements of sufficient qualified personnel,” said Anderson.
Anderson said that the huge increase in labor costs either cannot be immediately met or absorbed, “thus rendering the business incapable of operating. The real danger in effectively closing or shutting down a small business will result in increased unemployment of local workers who will not have a job because of a business shut down.”
Skilled workers wanted
Irene and Dave Hicks, owners of America’s Best Electricmart, Inc, have three H-2 workers. The Hicks’ offer an electric motor repair service.
“We can’t find someone with the skills. What this would do to us, if we had to pay $20,000 for H-2 workers, we’re no longer going to be able to provide our service. The reality is our major customer is not the federal government, is not the Department of Defense, although we do some work through their subcontractors,” said Dave Hicks.
Hicks’ customers are mostly local commercial businesses, like the hotels—any business that runs an electric motor.
“If I have to pay $60,000 to bring in H-2 workers, I can’t charge my customers three times the amount; they’d go out and buy new motors. We have 12 people working for us, three are H-2 workers and it adds to our bottom line. If I can’t have H-2 workers, it impacts the rest of our team of local workers.
“The Middle-Class Job Creation Act will become the Guam Unemployment Act. Bill 48 is not good for Guam’s economy which means it is not good for Guam’s people,” he said.
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Senator Rector, DO Quit Your Day Job
Written by Guam News Factor Staff Writer
Wants to stick it to the man
Misleading Guam's Working Class: Rector Bill Will Destroy Guam's Economy And Lose More Jobs Than It Promises To Create
GUAM - Guam’s working class hero is at it again. As the self-proclaimed champion of the Guam wage earner, Senator Matt Rector promises his bill will create jobs for Guam’s middle class. His proposed cure all, Bill 48 seeks to raise the fee to import transient laborers to Guam from $1,000 to $40,000—or even $20,000, his recent compromise. His proposal: Increase the alien registration fee to the Nth degree and discourage employers from hiring off-island.
Confident in his cause, the freshman senator recently initiated a mass email campaign urging the community to rally behind the measure that he claims will create thousands of high paying jobs for our local people and would funnel billions of federal dollars into Guam’s economy.
While his legislation is an entertaining read, what Rector fails to realize is that his cavalier antics are putting local employees in the line of fire. Rector’s bill proposes most of the dollars of these high fees will be deposited into the general fund.
Portions of the fees currently in place are put into a fund that directly supports work force training programs. The effects of Bill 48 will distress more than the employer who will be at a disadvantage when recruiting workers at staggering rates. What the bill proposes to do is eliminate the only local funding source dedicated to skills training. Rector’s ‘stick it to the man’ solution only illustrates his limited focus.
Not only does the bill do away with local training, it stands to force Guam’s local companies out of business.
Rector claims his measure will raise local wages and force employers to hire locally before elsewhere. What he fails to consider is the shortage of local trained, skilled workers with experience who are able to handle the demands of the impending buildup. This difficulty coupled with the daunting price tag for foreign workers would leave businesses with their heads barely above water.
As Guam’s leaders work with the Department of Defense to include local business in federal contracts, Senator Rector threatens to make those opportunities impossible. Worse yet, with the passage of this bill, existing companies providing services in Guam's current economy would be forced out of business.
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