Letter: First-hand view of Saipan abuses

I lived there 10 years ago and was the editor of a local newspaper there, the Marianas Variety. The abuses were rampant and I wrote editorial after editorial, with very little reaction from the residents of Saipan.

Almost everyone who is not a contract worker there (not counting the U.S. citizens or the owners of businesses) uses and/or abuses contract workers. Therefore, it is very difficult for changes to be made to the system, which has been in place for more than 25 years.

I don't hold out much hope for any changes to be made that will be meaningful, as long as the Saipanese can recruit contract workers from poor countries, which have an overabundance of skilled workers and poor economies, which cannot offer decent paying employment.

The locals' justification for the abuses has always been, "Well, this is a step up from what they have at home."

The whole Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands economy is based on the production of contract workers, 30,000 of them, supporting 12,000 locals and 5,000 U.S. citizens. I finally had to quit my job there because I could not bear to see the contract workers abused and not much being done about it.

About seven years ago, California Rep. George Miller investigated the same allegations and vowed to do something about it. Somehow nothing seems to happen as long as the people with money, influence and businesses in Saipan call the shots.

Patty Jacobs

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